Magistrates, opposition parties, media voice fear that EO 13 might still come into force

The representatives of the judiciary authorities and of the opposition, along with journalists on Thursday warned that, although repealed, the controversial emergency ordinance no 13 could still become effective.

First of all, the EO 13 is officially repealed if the EO 14 comes into force, but if the EO 14 is challenged and declared unconstitutional, the EO 13 becomes effective.

After the constitutional judges have decided to overrule the Ombudsman’s appeal against EO 13, on the ground that the regulatory document had been already repealed, the Liberals called on the PSD-ALDE parliamentary majority to emergently adopt the emergency ordinance no 14. “PNL has asked this and the PSD-ALDE majority has ignored the appeal. I ask again that both emergency ordinances to go through Parliament and not be kept in some drawers to prepare some other blows on criminal law,” the Liberal interim chairwoman Raluca Turcan posted on Facebook.

The anti-corruption chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi also said that she is afraid that the ordinance 13 amending the criminal codes might still come into force if the ordinance that repealed it is challenged and declared unconstitutional.

“The repealing ordinance contains statements declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. Due to this situation the ordinance repealing might be declared unconstitutional, invalid”, Kovesi told an interview to La Repubblica.

In his turn, magistrate Cristi Danilet, former member of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), also considers that the danger that the EO 13 “to revive” is not completely over.

„If MPs decide to adopt EO 14, everything is fine. But, if they veto it, that means that the EO 13 is reviving. However, attention, we are in Parliament, where the constitutional challenge on EO 14 can be argued until the law is promulgated,” Danilet explained.

According to him, if the constitutional judges had also ruled on the substance of the EO 13 it would have been better, for, „this way we could discover that one night a crime in the criminal code in Romania disappears or has a milder punishement.”

“Theoretically, it’s possible to decriminalize manslaughter in Romania by emergency ordinance and we’ll have no reaction time,” the magistrate argued.

Journalist Liviu Avram also stated that Grindeanu Gov’t has wilfully introduce in the EO 14 an unconstitutional article so that it could be vetoed in Parliament and thus the controversial EU 13 should come into force.

„The Government hasn’t played frankly and honestly when issuing the ordinance 14, for it has intentionally introduced some unconstitutional articles precisely to make the ordinace vulnerable and to provide the Parliament with the occasion of vetoing it,” Liviu Avram opined.

anti-corruption headcome into forceDNAeo 13eo 14laura codruta kovesimagistratesmediaoppositionparliamentpnlunconstitutional
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  • Ion Popescu

    Danilet is a straw man of Basescu, magistrat who was against human rights.