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Iohannis: CVM report, a serious alarm signal the ruling coalition must take into account
President Klaus Iohannis says that European Commission's report on progress in Romania with judiciary reform under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) is a serious alarm signal that the ruling coalition must take into account, according to a statement from the Presidential Administration.
"If the actions of Romania's Government and Parliament in the process of amending justice legislation continue in the same direction as before, Romania will take steps back in the operation of its judiciary and the fight against corruption," says Iohannis.
The Presidential Administration shows that Iohannis shares the European Commission's view that the process of amending this legislation must be as transparent as possible and take into account the position of all players in the judiciary.
He points out that after the January 2017 report, which noted a significant progress made in 2016, in the report one published on Wednesday, the European Commission shows that only one of the 12 recommendations is implemented satisfactorily and real progress has been made only with three other recommendations. The head of state says the European Commission warns in its latest report that the reform momentum in course of 2017 was lost overall, slowing down the fulfillment of the remaining recommendations, and with the risk of re-opening issues which the January 2017 report had considered as fulfilled.
"In the ten years since its accession to the European Union, Romania has made important progress with judicial reform, which is constantly mentioned in the last CVM reports to date. At the same time, lifting Romania's monitoring under this mechanism depends directly on the sustained and irreversible nature of these reforms," Iohannis says.
He adds that "all the efforts made by Romania to strengthen judicial reforms and the fight against corruption may be jeopardised by the actions of politicians who refuse to accept that their duty is to work in the service of citizens rather than partisan or group interests."
"Affecting judicial independence and, in general, any pressure or attempt to politically control justice, does nothing but turn Romania back to the past," he points out.
Iohannis also reiterates that he will use all his constitutional powers to secure judicial independence and a functional rule of law, underlining that this is the vision of a strong European Romania backed by the vote of millions of citizens.