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President Iohannis decided to refer justice laws to CCR, notify Venice Commission
President Klaus Iohannis announced on Wednesday having decided to refer to the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) the controversial package of justice legislation, and also to the Venice Commission.
"As it stands now, the legislative package amending justice legislation does not meet the requirements of a democratic state and the rule of law, as the Romanian Constitution emblematically proclaims in Article 1, nor the expectations of the Romanians who want an independent justice grounded in justice and unbiased. I have therefore decided to refer the entire legislative package back to the Constitutional Court and, at the same time, to bring the matter to the attention of the Venice Commission. I am therefore urging the Constitutional Court to take its time and to work with the European body that has been contributing for nearly 30 years to the development of a common constitutional heritage in Europe, and that supports states wishing to bring legal and institutional bodies in line with international standards and best practices in the fields of democracy, the pre-eminence of the rule of law and the protection of human rights, including by providing emergency constitutional support," said Iohannis.
He expressed his conviction that the judges of the CCR "respect their status as guarantors of the supremacy of the fundamental law and defenders of democracy through law, so that they will display their entire openness to an approach that aims to ensure respect for the principles and values of European democracy in Romania."
"After the court rules on these matters, I will make a new analysis of the laws and decide whether or not a review is necessary," Iohannis said.
He mentioned the course of the laws of justice, adding that "one cannot watch passively as the Constitution is being rewritten."
He pointed out that Law 303/2004 on the Statutes of Magistrates, Law 304/2004 on Judicial Organisation and Law no. 317/2004 on the organisation and functioning of the Supreme Council of Magistrates are not fully compliant either with the internal constitutional framework or with the European standards in the field.
Former CCR President, Augustin Zegrean, has told Digi 24 TV it’s the head of state’s right to do this. “It’s the President’s means to force the Parliament adopt clean and constitutional laws. The notification to the Venice Commission should have been done sooner, they actually work four months per year and it’s hard to get an answer between the sessions,” Zegrean said.He believes the President has changed his decision on this notification when he saw “the same way to adopt the laws and the same texts are insisted upon. He believed (the Parliament – our note) will consider his stance and the CCR position, but it seems it did not happen.”
Zegrean has also underlined that the CCR decisions do not include the opinion expressed by the Venice Commission, but takes them into consideration.
At the end of March, the upper house of Romanian parliament approved the bills, which critics say will weaken judicial independence by excessive politicisation. Iohannis needed to sign the bills in order for them to take effect.
Some of the most controversial changes would cancel the president's right to veto the government's nominations for chief prosecutor and would empower the finance ministry to recover any losses stemming from a judicial error from the judge who had issued the sentence, rather than from the state budget.
The Council of Europe's Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) said last month that Romania needs to refrain from passing further amendments to the criminal law which could undermine its anti-corruption capacities.
"In 2017, a series of reforms were initiated concerning Romania’s justice system, prompting a wave of unprecedented public protests and concerns expressed by nearly half of the country’s judges and prosecutors, as well as by several countries and international institutions, about the consequences of the intended reforms for the independence of judges and prosecutors," a compliance report on Romania published by GRECO reads.