Romania’s ex-justice minister comes with new “modest" threshold for abuse of office

Florin Iordache, an MP representing the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) and former minister of justice, has come up with a new, “modest” threshold for abuse of office. He said on Tuesday, October 31, that a threshold for abuse of office “of around RON 19,000” will “not bother anyone.” He reiterated the fact that this threshold was "requested in two decisions of the Constitutional Court". Moreover, he argued that the sum of RON 19,000 (some EUR 4,100) is close to the one proposed by the Association of Magistrates in Romania. Florin Iordache was the minister of justice when the former Government led by Sorin Grindeanu adopted the controversial Emergency Ordinance 13, which would have brought major changes to the Criminal Code. One of the changes provided a limit of RON 200,000 (EUR 44,000) for the abuse of office crime. That meant that abuse of office would not have been considered a criminal offence if the damages were below that amount. However, the ordinance, which was adopted in a late meeting at the end of January, triggered some of the biggest street protests Romania has ever seen. It was repealed a few days later, and Florin Iordache resigned from the position of justice minister. In June, Iordache said that the Government should keep the RON 200,000 (EUR 44,000) threshold he proposed in January for incriminating abuse of office or even increase it to RON 400,000 (EUR 88,000). Florin Iordache is now the president of the parliamentary committee for ensuring legislative stability in the field of justice. The current justice minister Tudorel Toader has also drafted some amendments to the justice laws, which he sent to the Parliament for debate and approval. The MPs have already proposed some changes to the draft bill submitted by Toader. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com