President of the Senate notifyed the Constitutional Court on a judicial conflict between the Government and DNA
The President of the Senate, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, decided to notify the Constitutional Court in order to find the existence of a judicial conflict of a constitutional nature between the Government of Romania and the Public Ministry, through the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA).
"The President of the Senate, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, decided to notify the Constitutional Court of Romania [CCR], based on the provisions of art. 146 let. e) in the Constitution of Romania, in order to find the existence of a judicial conflict of a constitutional nature between the Government of Romania, on the one hand, the Public Ministry, through the National Anticorruption Directorate, a structure of the judicial authority, on the other hand. The judicial conflict of a constitutional nature which the President of the Senate brings into CCR's attention was generated by the DNA prosecutors' demarches, consisting of investigating the circumstances in which the draft of the Emergency Ordinance referring to amendment and addition of the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure was drawn up, which created institutional blockings," shows a press release of the Senate, sent on Wednesday.
Calin Popescu-Tariceanu believes that, proceeding on investigating the opportuneness, circumstances, and context of drawing up the normative act, "representatives of the Public Ministry usurped some of the Government's competencies, through the Justice Ministry, which led to the appearance of the current judicial conflict of a constitutional nature, in the sense of the CCR decisions."
"GEO No. 13/2017 approaches a topic of criminal policy of the Romanian state, or the measures of criminal policy are found exclusively in the competency of Parliament and Government, other public authorities, including the judicial authority, can express points of views on this matter, can and must be consulted, but cannot have the interference power, discretionary interference, including criminal investigation, nor of Parliament's structures, nor the Government's structures," the notification sent to the CCR mentions.
At the end of the notification addressed to the CCR, the President of the Senate requests that decision on which the Court will be pronounced unblock the conflict, "ruling that, in the future, the prosecution bodies cannot investigate the opportunneness of drawing up normative acts."