The Court of Justice of the European Union on May 18 released a series of six rulings pertaining to Romania concerning a wide-ranging reform in the field of justice and the fight against corruption.

The rulings are highly technical in their nature and diverse in their scope, but two conclusions stirred most of the public interest.

Firstly, the CJEU leaves the Romanian authorities to decide on the fate of the controversial specialised section, a prosecution body specialised in investigating magistrates. However, guidelines are provided for assessing whether the section is in line with the EU laws: whether there is a good reason for setting it up in the first place and whether it can be kept apart from political influence.

“The Court clarifies that, in order to be compatible with EU law, such legislation must, first, be justified by objective and verifiable requirements relating to the sound administration of justice and, secondly, ensure that that section cannot be used as an instrument of political control over the activity of those judges and prosecutors and that the section exercises its competence in compliance with the requirements of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,” according to the CJEU’s ruling.

A second ruling that prompted public comments relates to the supremacy of the EU laws in front of national legislation - including the rulings of the constitutional provisions.

“The Court recalls that, in accordance with settled case-law, the effects of the principle of the primacy of EU law are binding on all the bodies of a Member State, without provisions of domestic law relating to the attribution of jurisdiction, including constitutional provisions, being able to prevent that,” the CJEU release reads.

Specifically, the ruling was interpreted in the sense of finally finding a way to overrule the decisions of the Constitutional Court that were sometimes seen as contradictory.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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