During the meeting on Monday, the Senate’s Standing Bureau approved the request tabled by the PNL parliamentary group, Justice Minister Tudorel Toader being thus set to take part, on May 3, in the ‘Government’s Hour’ procedure, in order to offer explanations regarding the GRECO report.
The Justice Minister will accept the invitation provided he is not in a Government meeting that day or if he does not have other meetings scheduled, USR Senator Mihai Gotiu pointed out on Monday, after the Senate’s Standing Bureau meeting.
Tudorel Toader confirmed for the MEDIAFAX press agency that he will go before Parliament.
On April 11, PNL President Ludovic Orban stated that the Liberals will summon Justice Minister Tudorel Toader in Parliament, for him to offer explanations regarding the GRECO report.
“You saw that the Government in the end accepted to publish the GRECO report. In the conclusions of the GRECO report, I believe you can recognise very many of PNL’s objections to the amendments to the judicial laws and very many of the objectives we had to the ruling coalition’s overall behaviour against the judicial system. We’ve decided to summon the Justice Minister, as part of the ‘Government’s Hour’ procedure within the Senate, so that Mr Tudorel Toader would show the Senate and the public opinion what he plans to do as Justice Minister, considering the GRECO report, which obviously is directly linked to what is happening within the mechanism of cooperation and verification, and especially to what extent Mr Tudorel Toader, as Justice Minister, is willing to stop endorsing the systematic assault that the PSD-ALDE ruling parties are mounting against the independence of the judiciary and against the fight against corruption,” Orban stated after PNL’s Executive Bureau meeting.
“The report notes that the amendments to the judiciary laws adopted by Parliament in 2017 do not contain the most controversial proposals presented initially in the summer. However, GRECO is concerned about their potential impact, including for the staff structure in the courts and prosecution offices. Despite the importance and wide scope of these reforms, their impact was not properly assessed, and the legislative process was also questionable,” reads the report.
“GRECO calls 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 reiterates its call for additional safeguards in relation to appointments and dismissal procedures for senior prosecutors by the executive branch of power,” reads the report.
