Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader says a judge can become a prosecutor with the European Prosecutor’s Office, in reply to those who criticize the provisions in the emergency ordinance modifying justice laws.
“A judge can become a prosecutor with the European Prosecutor’s Office, according to the EU regulation on the setting up of the European Prosecutor’s Office!,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
The National Union of Judges in Romania (UNJR) on Thursday condemned the provisions of Government Emergency Ordinance 7/2019 modifying justice laws, by saying that the ordinance “violates the principle of career separation.”
UNJR criticizes the possibility that a judge who used to be a prosecutor could become chief of a prosecutor’s office, which it says is a serious violation of the principle of career separation.
According to the judges, a basic principle that was introduced once with the modifications brought to the justice laws in 2017-2018 was the principle of “career separation,” meant to eliminate confusion between the two careers existing in the justice field, which are independent from one another.
Legal conflict of constitutional nature cannot be generated by law-making activity
A legal conflict of a constitutional nature cannot be generated by law-making activity, says Justice Minister Tudorel Toader in a Facebook post.
Toader makes reference to the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR)’s Decision 231 of 2013 on the request for settlement of the legal conflict of a constitutional nature between the judiciary represented by the Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM) and the executive power, represented by the Government of Romania. The CCR then rejected the request made by the Superior Council of Magistrates and found that there was no legal conflict of a constitutional nature.
“The Constitutional Court’s duty to settle the legal conflicts of a constitutional nature between public authorities was not conceived by the constituent legislator as a third distinct way of examining the constitutionality of legislative acts,” the reasons for the decision specify.
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