USR notified the Venice Commission because of the Justice laws proposed by Minister Predoiu

The Save Romania Union announced, on Wednesday, that it complained to the Venice Commission about the three Justice projects proposed by Minister Cătălin Predoiu.

The request was made by USR deputy Iulian Bulai, president of the ALDE group from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (APCE).

He asked the PSD-PNL-UDMR coalition not to give a final vote in the “Special Commission Iordache 2” until the opinion of the Venice Commission is received.

“The Venice Commission will issue an opinion on the three laws of Justice. This is what we asked today in the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The request was accepted with a majority vote. PSD-PNL should not rush: wait for the requested point of view and implement it in relation to the MCV and GRECO provisions”said Iulian Bulai, according to a USR press release quoted by Agerpres.

USR deputy Stelian Ion claims, for his part, that a point of view from the Venice Commission is necessary.

“Despite the commitments in the government program, Minister Predoiu strongly opposed obtaining such an opinion from the Venice Commission. Considering the debates in the Special Commission and the fact that many professional associations criticize these projects, with substantial arguments, it is it is essential to have the opinion of the Venice Commission at hand and to give an informed vote. We request the PSD-PNL-UDMR coalition to be given reports on the three laws after we see the arguments of the Venice Commission“, the former Minister of Justice said.

According to him, “more than once, the Venice Commission confirmed the criticisms formulated by the USR”.

“It happened with the Justice laws from the Dragnea era, it happened with the so-called project to abolish the Special Section proposed by Cătălin Predoiu“, argued Stelian Ion.

“Without laws approved by the Venice Commission, we cannot have an independent Judiciary, as Romania assumed before Europe“, the USR press release states.

Laws of Justice, in Parliament

The special parliamentary commission for Justice laws started last week the debate of the three projects sent in the legislative procedure by the Government regarding the status of judges and prosecutors, the judicial organization and, respectively, the Superior Council of Magistracy.

There were general debates on these projects and debates on the articles follow.

The special parliamentary committee for the examination of laws in the field of Justice discussed, on Wednesday, in the first part of a meeting lasting over three hours, 138 articles from the draft law of the Superior Council of Magistracy, rejecting en bloc amendments submitted by USR and AUR, but also by CSM and associations of magistrates.

However, the Commission unanimously adopted an amendment to the CSM, assumed by all the parliamentary groups, regarding the election of representatives of civil society as members of the CSM, including among the conditions that “are specialists in the field of law, with at least 10 years of experience in a legal profession or in higher legal education”.

According to the project developed by the Ministry of Justice, the 10-year term was valid only for legal activity.