April 11 (SeeNews) - Romania needs to refrain from passing further amendments to the criminal law which could undermine its anti-corruption capacities, the Council of Europe's Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) said on Wednesday.
"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.
GRECO expressed serious concern about certain aspects of the laws on the status of judges and prosecutors, on the judicial organisation and on the Superior Council of Magistracy recently adopted by Parliament as well as about draft amendments to the criminal legislation.
The report notes that the amendments to the three laws on the judiciary adopted by the parliament in December 2017 do not contain some of the most controversial proposals presented initially in the summer. However, GRECO says is concerned about their potential impact, including for the staff structure in the courts and prosecution services. Despite the importance and wide scope of these reforms, their impact was not properly assessed, and the legislative process was also questionable.
GRECO called upon Romania to abandon the creation of the new special prosecutor’s section for the investigation of offences in the judiciary. The report also takes note of the controversial process to dismiss the head of the specialised anti-corruption prosecutor’s office (DNA), initiated in February 2018, and it reiterates its call for additional safeguards in relation to appointments and dismissal procedures for senior prosecutors by the executive branch of power.
GRECO is also critical about the draft amendments to the criminal legislation which, if adopted, would clearly contradict some of Romania's international commitments, including the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption. Amendments to the criminal procedure currently discussed by the special parliamentary joint committee are perceived by foreign countries as a threat to the effectiveness of mutual legal assistance, the report showed.
GRECO invited Romania to present an update on the state of the proposed reforms at its next plenary meeting on June 18-22.
Also on Wednesday, independent watchdog organisation Freedom House said that attempts to weaken judicial independence and the anti-corruption framework in Romania are expected to continue in 2018, accompanied by an increasing illiberal discourse against groups that oppose those changes.
At the end of February, Romania's Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) rejected the proposal of justice minister Tudorel Toader to dismiss the chief of anti-corruption directorate DNA, Laura Codruta Kovesi. Toader said Kovesi had allegedly damaged the image of the country abroad and accused her of being too authoritarian. Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has the final say on the proposal to dismiss Kovesi and hasn't issued a decision yet.
EU officials and anti-corruption institutions have praised DNA's activity in general and Kovesi's activity in particular on numerous occasions, stressing that her efforts are crucial for the country's fight against corruption.
GRECO was founded in 1999 as a monitoring body for the compliance of its members with Council of Europe anti-corruption standards.
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