Romanian president calls political parties to consultations on justice legislation

Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has invited the local political parties represented in the Parliament to consultations on the justice reform on Wednesday, October 24. The meetings between the president and the party representatives will take place at the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest, the president’s official residence. The president’s call comes after the negative opinion issued by the Venice Commission on Friday on the changes to the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code adopted by the Romanian parliament at the beginning of summer. The Venice Commission also maintained its negative preliminary opinion on the changes to the justice laws. After the Commission’s report, president Iohannis asked for justice minister Tudorel Toader’s resignation. He also accused the ruling coalition made of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) of damaging the rule of law and the citizens’ confidence that no one is above the law in Romania. The Venice Commission expressed concern that many draft amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code in Romania seriously weaken the effectiveness of its criminal justice system to fight corruption offences, violent crimes and organized criminality. The Commission also recommended that the authorities reassess the amendments and reconsider provisions regulating corruption-related offences such as abuse of service, bribery and embezzlement. PSD MP Florin Iordache, who leads the parliamentary committee in charge with justice reform, said that not all Venice Commission recommendations will be followed when reassessing the criminal codes and that the Constitutional Court’s decisions are the ones that the parliament will follow, local Digi24 reported. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Presidency.ro)