EC Report: Romania Took Steps To Improve Judicial Procedures

Since the European Commission's (EC) last annual report on Romania's progress under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), the authorities also re-established the legal framework for the National Integrity Agency (ANI).

The EC notes that, "although not part of the CVM benchmarks, the authorities decided to carry out reviews of the judicial system and of public procurement and to make an evaluation of anti-corruption policy."

Still, says the EC, despite this progress, "since July 2010 there is a lack of consistency and results in a number of areas. Progress in the fight against corruption is still insufficient. Several important high-level cases remain delayed in court for several years and have also seen little movement during this period."

The Commission warns urgent action must be taken to accelerate these trials and prevent them being closed because of exceeding their statute of limitations.

In the EC's opinion, "the fight against corruption should be given a clearer priority and be coordinated with the help of a new comprehensive and robust anti-corruption strategy." The report says that "urgent measures are needed to improve the recovery of the proceeds of crime, the pursuit of money laundering and protection against conflict of interest in the management of public funds," and called for better results "in the confiscation of unjustified assets and in delivering dissuasive sanctions for incompatibilities."

To speed up judicial reform, the EC says Romania should adopt an implementation plan for the Civil Code, Criminal Code, Civil procedure Code and Criminal procedure Code, which are to be introduced in 2012, "and create a framework of cooperation with the judiciary and civil society to facilitate the necessary structural adjustments to the judicial system."

The report notes that the new High Council of Magistrates (CSM) "still needs to demonstrate its commitment to reform through concrete results."

The Commission says that, since its last assessment, "Romania has improved the efficiency of the judicial process through a simplification of some judicial procedures and the introduction of new legal tools, such as greater possibilities for the prosecution to dismiss cases where existing evidence does not warrant further investigation, or the possibility for a defendant to plead guilty in court and shorten trial proceedings."

According to the report, "these legal amendments have contributed to strengthening the efficiency of the prosecution and to speeding-up a number of cases in court."

"In addition, Romania has started preparations to carry out an independent functional review of the judicial system. This review should define measures for a more comprehensive reform of structures, procedures and human resources, which will be necessary to accompany the entry into force of the new codes."

"The four new codes must be considered a significant step in judicial reform and in improving the consistency and efficiency of the judicial process," says the EC.

"Since the Commission's last assessment in July 2010, some delays have appeared in the preparations for the implementation of the new codes. Although the date of implementation on 1 October has been fixed for the Civil Code and implementing laws for the other codes are being drafted and finalised, impact studies are not yet ready, little training has been delivered and a comprehensive implementation plan is still missing."

The Commission says it will be important "to avoid diverging practice and good preparation will be essential for the smooth implementation of the other codes."

"Through the Small Reform Law, Romania has revised the attributions of the High Court of Cassation and Justice with a view to enabling the Court to function more effectively as a cassation court," says the EC, pointing out however that "these reforms do not go far enough to effectively tackle the problem of non-unified jurisprudence."

"The new procedure codes introduce a new mechanism for unifying jurisprudence, the preliminary ruling, which will complement the existing appeal in the interest of the law. An interpretative ruling by the High Court in July should prolong the special statute-barred period of a case when a decision on a Constitutional exception is pending. The application of strict rules to accompany the new mechanism will be necessary to avoid that unfounded requests for preliminary rulings unduly delay trials. Romania has not yet achieved a full electronic publication of jurisprudence," says the Commission, in the report obtained Monday by MEDIAFAX and which will be published Wednesday in Brussels.

The report also notes that "court motivations are often issued with considerable delay after the verdict is pronounced."

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