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JusMin Toader: Report concludes Romania can fulfil its objective of lifting CVM under incumbent EC
The report published on Wednesday by the European Commission on Romania's progress with judicial reform concludes that Romania can fulfil its objective of having the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) lifted before the tenure of the incumbent European Commission ends in 2018, Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said Wednesday.
"I have presented the conclusion of the report, which is positive, that Romania can fulfill its objective of having the CVM lifted before the tenure of the incumbent European Commission ends (...) I have taken note of the commission's assessment of the progress made by Romania with meeting the recommendations made in January 2017. It is a milestone report, which is very important to underline, is a progress report, a report tracing progress from the previous similar report of January 2017. The report highlights many of Romania's progress from January 2017, providing a basis for the Commission's conclusion on Romania meeting all the CVM recommendations in the near future, with 2018 being a possible time horizon. It is also the commitment that we have made that when taking over the presidency of the Council of the European Unions in early 2019, Romania will no longer be under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism," Toader said at a news conference.
He added that the developments are in line with this commitment.
"The report notes the progress made with regard to most of the recommendations. For example, the progress with recommendation 8 — ensure the entry into operation of the PREVENT, and the fact that recommendation 2 on the adoption of a code of conduct for MPs and a code of conduct for ministers, recommendation 7 on transparency and accountability of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), recommendation 12 on the National Agency for the Management of Seized Assets (ANABI) are almost fully met. In our opinion, recommendations 2, 7 and 18 could have been considered met. As you know, the codes of conduct for both MPs and ministers have been adopted, and ANABI is fully operational," said Toader.
În his opinon, CVM also mentions projects still under debate, and those on amending justice legislation, but it is important that no regression has been found.
"With regard to the first recommendation on the appointment of top prosecutors, the commission mentions the bill amending justice legislation, which has undergone the first stage of the legislative, parliamentary procedure. Therefore, the report mentions legislative solutions that are still under consideration, even in the early stage of parliamentary debates, meaning in a non-final form and, consequently, not applicable legislative solutions (...) Only the final form of the law produces legal effects; only the final form of the law that is published in the Official Journal will allow us to assess the effects of the provisions in the bill amending justice legislation on judicial independence. At the current stage, the mention only does a positioning, concern, and does not regard the merits, because once again we are talking about bills that have not passed even the first reading," Toader said at a news conference.
He added that that during the CVM monitoring there were also moments of stagnation, but also irreversible developments, but the most important thing is that there was no regression.
"This CVM has been in place for ten years. It is a lasting process with recommendations that have been changed in time. Clearly, in a decade of monitoring, the commission has seen irreversible developments in all its reports. If you mean moments of stagnation, there have been some in the course of this decade and obvious ones. What's important is that there have been no regressions, that the irreversible nature has been preserved, and there is progress toward meeting all of the 12 recommendations," said Toader.