Three associations of magistrates harshly criticize the draft amendments to the justice laws put up for public debate, saying that “European partners are being deceived without any restraint by the Minister of Justice, in an insidious and endless game”, because almost all the harmful amendments are maintained criticized by international bodies in recent years. Judges and prosecutors call on the European Commission to get involved “to restore hope to magistrates who act in good faith that the values of the rule of law have not yet disappeared in Romania”.
The Association of the Form of Judges, the Initiative for Justice and the Association Movement for the Defense of the Status of Prosecutors addressed an open letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the Vice-President of the EC, Vera Jourova and the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders.
The three associations of judges and prosecutors make a tough analysis of the projects to amend the justice laws, which they say maintain the same retrograde provisions and block any kind of reform, despite the commitments made to the European Commission.
In the opinion of the associations of magistrates, through these projects all the progress achieved by Romania in the fight against corruption and organized crime are compromised and the control of the activity of DNA and DIICOT is attempted by the political factor, through the general prosecutor of Romania, who is appointed in an eminently political manner.
Judges and prosecutors also say that the necessary changes are abandoned without any explanation, without transparently mentioning who proposed the new provisions in the draft justice laws, by which, practically, “the judicial system knows an unacceptable regression, its independence being seriously endangered”.
Associations of magistrates call on the European Commission to get involved, saying that, otherwise, “the destruction of justice will be complete, and the EU treaties in Romania will be totally and irremediably compromised”.
“We have been fighting for almost four year for the justice independence in Romania, but without the European Commission’s involvement, which should have been the first to notify the EU Court of Justice over the destruction of the rule of law in Romania and has not done it so far, all our efforts will become useless, while the three ECHJ resolutions on the justice independence in Romania will become ineffective.
Moreover, in Romania, under the pressure of the Constitutional Court and of the Judiciary Inspection, ordinary judges are reluctant to enforce the EU Rule of Law. Noncomplying with the Constitutional Court rulings represents official misconduct, a legislative solutions that allows the total ignore of the EU Court of Justice”, the magistrates’ associations argued.