July 13 (SeeNews) - The Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe, on Friday recommended that Romania reconsider justice bills related to the appointment of high-ranking prosecutors, including by revising its Constitution.
"The Commission recommends to Romanian authorities to re-consider the system for the appointment / dismissal of high -ranking prosecutors, including by revising related provisions of the Constitution, with a view to providing conditions for a neutral and objective appointment/dismissal process by maintaining the role of the institutions, such as the President and the SCM [Superior Council of Magistrates], able to balance the influence of the Minister of Justice," the Commssion said in a preliminary opinion on amendments to three Romanian laws concerning the judiciary.
The controversial legislation has been submitted to its assessment by the Romanian president and the monitoring committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council or Europe.
Furthermore, the Venice Commission recommends that Romania remove or better define the provisions enabling the superior prosecutors to invalidate prosecutors’ solution for groundlessness and to remove proposed restriction on judges and prosecutors freedom of expression.
Romania should also supplement the provisions on magistrates’ material liability by explicitly stating that, in the absence of bad faith and/or gross negligence, magistrates are not liable for a solution which could be disputed by another court.
Also, according to the Vence Commission, it should reconsider the proposed establishment of a separate prosecutor’s office structure for the investigation of offences committed by judges and prosecutors; the recourse to specialized prosecutors, coupled with effective procedural safeguards appears as a suitable alternative in this respect.
Romania should also re-examine the grounds for the revocation of SCM members and to remove the possibility to revoke elected members of the SCM through the no-confidence vote of the general meetings of courts or prosecutors’ offices.
Finally, it should ensure that the proposed 'screening' measures of magistrates are based on clearly specified criteria and coupled with adequate procedural safeguards and a right of appeal to a court of law, and identify ways to strengthen oversight mechanisms of the intelligence services.
On Monday, president Klaus Iohannis finally signed a decree to dismiss the ehad of the anti-graft authority, Laura Kovesi, after the ruling coalition of the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and the Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE) threatened to seek his suspension over his refusal to comply with a Constitutional Court decision and sack the DNA head.
In April the president rejected a proposal by justice minister Tudorel Toader to dismiss Kovesi. Toader claimed Kovesi had damaged the country's image abroad. In response, the Romanian government took the case to the Constitutional Court.
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.