RO Govt. to pass key bills by accelerated procedure in Parliament

Romania’s Government will attempt to have several key bills passed quickly by the lawmakers under an accelerated procedure that gives opposition parties the chance to launch a no-confidence motion and overthrow the cabinet, Profit.ro.

The Government will thus “assume responsibility” under this procedure for two packages of bills in the areas of justice and economy as soon as this week, prime minister Ludovic Orban announced on December 2 after the leadership of the ruling Liberal party held a meeting attended by president Klaus Iohannis as well.

Specifically, in the area of justice the Government wants to cancel the procedure of “compensatory appeal”, a procedure that allows the early release of criminals who served part of their term in improper detention conditions, which has led to the release of dangerous criminals, some of whom have committed new crimes.

The Government also wants to defer the early retirement of magistrates, approved by the previous Social Democrat majority, which could lead to the retirement of many senior magistrates in Romania and block the local justice system starting January 2020.

Other measures are replacing the two-judge panels with three-judge panels and increasing the training period for magistrates.

As regards the economic bills envisaged for quick endorsement, PM Orban announced the Government will seek to reverse the effects of the emergency ordinance (OUG) 114/2018.

He specifically mentioned the sector of energy, where the European Commission has urged Romania to take measures and restore the liberalisation process of the gas and electricity markets.

“Our goal is to cancel the provisions related to energy, namely the taxation in the energy sector [the 2% turnover tax], and we also want to lift the regulation of the prices of electricity and natural gas sold by producers to residential consumers," said Orban.

(Photo: Octav Ganea/ Inquam Photos)