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National chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Marcel Ciolacu said on Thursday that a rule should be imposed - people who have been members of a political party should not be allowed to be judges at the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR), according to AGERPRES.
"I have heard a lot about the CCR reform. The system for appointing judges to CCR is a democratic system. The same is true in the United States and in the United Kingdom and everywhere in Europe and in a country democratically consolidated for hundreds of years, not 30 years. Indeed, perhaps a rule should be imposed that you are not allowed to be a judge at CCR if you were a member of a political party. It is a fair approach and changes should be made, but not in the voting system in Parliament. Parliament, no matter how criticised it is, is the mainstay of a democracy. I believe in a reform of these appointments, but some conditions should be put in place such as experience with the judiciary, in your career; they can also be lawyers, that is, you do not have to limit things, but you should have never been politically regimented. And then it depoliticises itself," Ciolacu told Hotnews Live webcast.
Asked if the Constitutional Court is politicised at the moment, Ciolacu said: "No. CCR currently operates according to the laws and rules that have existed so far. (...) I think the vast majority of CCR members were party members. I remember when Mr Traian Basescu [former president of Romania] was in office the vast majority were former Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) members and PDL lawmakers. I think that should be stopped."
