JusMin: Romania’s solid political commitment for reforming judiciary system, presented by Predoiu to PACE co-rapporteurs

 

According to a press release sent by the Ministry of Justice to AGERPRES, in the context of the work visit in Romania of the co-rapporteurs of the monitoring committee of PACE, Edite Estrela, the vicepresident of PACE, as well as Krista Baumane, Catalin Predoiu had a talk on current topics regarding the reform of the judiciary system and the fight against corruption.

 

Ionut Stroe, vicepresident of PACE on behalf of Romania, also took part in the meeting, as well as Agnieszka Nachilo, the head of the Monitoring Committee Secretary.

 

During the talks, the quoted source says, the Minister of Justice presented Romania's solid political commitment for reforming the judiciary system and the fight against corruption, Catalin Predoiu mentioning that in the last 10 years "Romania has registered reforms and constant progress in the judiciary sector for subscribing to European standards".

 

"The Projects of Justice Laws represent the largest revision project of a normative framework in regards to the organization and functioning of the judiciary system. The projects were subject to ample public consultations, where proposals and comments were received from relevant institutions (the two Sections of the Superior Council of Magistracy, High Court of Cassation and Justice, the National Anticorruption Directorate), from professional associations, as well as proposals sent separately by courts, namely individual proposals. It is necessary that these projects are adopted by Parliament as soon as possible, in order to be reflected in the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (MCV)'s next report, as well as taking into consideration Romania's PNRR [the National Recovery and Resilience Plan]'s milestones," Catalin Predoiu declared, quoted in the press release.

 

As regards the evaluation of the application of the provisions of Law 49/2022, through which the Section for Investigating Crimes in Justice (SIIJ) was disbanded, the Minister of Justice mentioned the criteria of selecting prosecutors, namely the condition regarding seniority (12 and 15 years) and the solid experience in handling especially complex cases.

 

"To specify that all 6774 SIIJ cases were redistributed to the Prosecutors' Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the Prosecutor's Offices Attached to the Courts of Appeal. Until this moment, the system proves to be functional," the Minister said.

 

Regarding the fight against corruption, Predoiu reviewed the solid results obtained by the National Anticorruption Directorate throughout the years, as well as its full political commitment for continuing the fight against corruption.

 

"The Minister of Justice highlighted that Romania is part of the mechanisms for evaluating on behalf of the European Commission. The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, The Rule-of-Law Mechanism, Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, as well as the mechanism established within the Monitoring Committee within PACE. As part of all these mechanisms, Romania makes constant and supported efforts for achieving the assumed obligations," the press release also specifies.