GRECO Report: Council of Europe anti-graft body says its deeply worried about changes to Romanian justice laws, calls on Romania to abstain from other changes that may affect fight against corruption

The Council of Europe group of states against corruption (GRECO) says in a report published Wednesday that it is deeply worried about the laws that the Romanian Parliament adopted recently, to change the legislation on the statute of magistrates, on the judiciary system and the Superior Council of Magistrates, as well as about bills to change penal law in the country.

GRECO produced the report after a plenary meeting in December 2017 led to a decision to analyse „reforms” in Romania’s justice system, considering the newly introduced legislation may be in serious breach of anti-corruption standards.

The report says that changes brought by the Parliament tu the laws of Justice in December 2017 do not contain some of the most controversial proposals, pushed initially in summer last year, but GRECO is worried about the possible impact they may have on various issues.

It says that despite their relevance and extensive coverage, the impact of the new laws was not properly evaluated and the legislative procedure used was debatable.

And GRECO also calls Romania to abandon the idea of a new prosecutor’s office to investigate magistrates.

The report also notes the controversial procedure aimed at dismissing the head of Romania’s National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi and calls for supplementary guarantees about the naming and dismissing high rank prosecutors by the executive power.

GRECO also criticizes proposals to change penal laws which, if adopted, may come in serious contradiction with the international commitments of Romania.