Situation Regarding the Romanian Judicial System at the end of 2018

Abstract

By the Decision 2006/928/EC of December 13th, 2006 of the European Commission was established a Cooperation and Verification Mechanism of progress made by Romania created for achieving specific benchmarks in the field of the judicial reform and the fight against corruption. Within this mechanism it was noted that the European Commission had identified unresolved issues, in particular regarding the accountability and efficiency of the judiciary system of Romania. In the context of Romania joining the European Union in 2007, the justice system of the former communist state seems to have changed and efforts were made to be aligned with those of the democratic states of Western Europe. But all this happened until 2017. In this article we will present the state of facts concerning the bills on Romanian Judiciary, the repeated and unprecedented attacks on the judges and prosecutors in 2018 and how some of the amendments of the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code adopted by the Romanian Parliament contravene to the rule of law. The obstacles that the current Government imposes on the fight against corruption and, more broadly, the risks to the independence of judges and the possibility for prosecutors to pursue their careers serenely, do not make it possible at present, to put end to the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.

Keywords: judicial system, Judicial Inspection, Superior Council of Magistracy, magistrates' liability regime, status of judges and prosecutors, Venice Commission, European Commission, freedom of expression of the judges and prosecutors, GRECO, Romanian Constitutional Court