The European Commission's report is very hard on Romania and it is critical of the political pressure on the judicial system in particular, says Mihai Politeanu, a Freedom House program coordinator in Romania. He also claims the report reproaches the judges in Romania who prove too relenting with gross corruption or avoid reaching verdicts and return cases to prosecutors because of minor deficiencies.
The Freedom House representative adds that the European Commission's report is also a warning for the Superior Council of Magistracy in Romania, given the ambiguous attitude in the fight of corruption. "The Council hasn't been categorical and the impression left is not that they are truly protecting the independence of Justice."
The official comments that the main plus in the new document consists in the fact that the European Commission is demanding the Parliament of Romania to drop the amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, which would have been "a disaster", that is jeopardy to the rule of the law.
Romanian magistrates: The Report doesn't reflect the true problems
Mona Pivniceru, a president of the Romanian Magistrates Association, comments for the NewsIn that the European Commission's report on Romanian Justice, released yesterday, doesn't reflect the true problems in Romania and she mentions that all judges do is obey the law when deciding on sentences.
The official explains: "The Report doesn't reflect the true problems in Romania. The first and the most serious one is the competences of courts, because of which we shall never have united, coherent practice in civil law. Not even the new Civil Procedure Code has changed this. (...) There is also the fact that laws are being ceaselessly modified, which is why it is impossible for judges to know which law to apply. And it also casts doubt on the judges' competence."
Mona Pivniceru highlights it is "a tragedy" that Justice employees are taken as a whole and she claims that particular person who makes a mistakes must pay for it, not the whole staff. (T.B.)