Anti-corruption prosecutors react to CCR ruling, voice concern. The EC, embassies’ stances

The prosecutors of the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) have responded on Thursday on the Constitutional Court’s latest ruling, through which President Iohannis is asked to dismiss the anti-graft chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi, stating that they are concerned that the independence of the prosecutors might be affected.

„In the context of debates generated by the press release issued by the Constitutional Court of Romania on May 30, the Press Bureau is entitled to deliver the DNA prosecutors’ stance. It’s time to sound a warning and to voice our concern over the potential damage of the prosecutors’ independence, which represents an essential premise of the anti-corruption fight.

Without the existing legal guarantees, the anti-corruption fight would have not been possible, while losing these guarantees risks seriously affecting the investigations conducted by the anti-corruption prosecutors,” the DNA says.

The European Commission and the US Embassy in Bucharest were also asked to comment the CCR ruling.

While the US embassy said “it is closely watching the events” and “this is an internal matter of Romania”, a EC spokesperson mentioned the Commission doesn’t comment the rulings of the national courts, yet adding it is monitoring the anti-corruption fight through the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM).

In its turn, Germany’s Embassy to Romania, also said it is closely watching the events after the CCR ruling. “We are closely watching the events. The European Commission has actually expressed an official stance related to this issue,” the German embassy says.