Minister: Romanian Government decisions should have same status as laws

Government decisions should be seen as normative acts with the same status as laws or emergency ordinances, and not administrative acts, justice minister Tudorel Toader told prime minister Mihai Tudose yesterday, according to government sources cited by News.ro. Thus, ministers should no longer be held accountable for the approval of these acts. The prime minister may refer to the Constitutional Court to rule if government decisions have same status as laws or emergency ordinances. If the Constitutional Court makes such a ruling, then the prosecutors would no longer be allowed to investigate ministers for issuing government decisions. This discussion started after the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) decided to start prosecuting deputy prime minister Sevil Shhaideh and EU funds minister Rovana Plumb for issuing a government decision in 2013 for the transfer of an island on the Danube from the Environment Ministry to the Teleorman County Council and then to a private company connected to Social Democratic leader Liviu Dragnea. Justice minister Tudorel Toader has already said that the DNA prosecutors had no authority to investigate a government decision. Tudorel Toader has recently come up with several controversial changes to the justice laws, one of which aims to transfer the Judicial Inspection under the Justice Ministry’s authority. editor@romania-insider.com