Romanian MEP: The European Commission has its own responsibility in the failure of Romanian Justice reforms

Social Democrat secretary general and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Titus Corlatean believes that the European officials are to blame for the Romanian Justice reforms failure, because the accepted the reports referring to the number of ministers, parliamentarians and dignitaries that will be prosecuted and sent to court. In the Discussion of the Week show, made by Dan Tapalaga, broadcast by BBC and published by HotNews.ro, Liberal MEP Renate Webber also declares that the European Commission has problems when it supports an unrealistic level of expectations.

Titus Corlatean says that the facts about to receive severe criticism in the July country report are related to the lack of reforms in Justice during the past three years. The MEP believes that the officials expected to see accomplished all the promises made by Romania in 2005.

„It is about measures promised by a right-wing Government in 2005. The committed to things that were beautifully wrapped and sold to the European Commission, a new, right-winged Commission at the time, a fact worth mentioning wince the Commissioners are also named on political criteria. The thing worked well between the two, a right-wing Romanians Government and a mostly right-wing Commission. All those legislation modifications, starting with the procedures for naming prosecutors, the Prosecutor General, the head of DNA (Anti-Graft National prosecution Office) were necessary and were made. Others were also necessary and were not made – a new Criminal Law, procedural warranties and others. This chaos is now obvious. The European Commission will rightfully criticize the inconsistency of the reform process”, says Corlatean.

„The European Commission has its own responsibility, ever since it committed to this road. I say it as a European Parliamentarian, not necessarily as a Social Democrat, as a European Parliamentarian who has the right to criticize the European Commissioners. Mr. Frattini, who taught us all sorts of lessons about how the reforms should be conducted, well, this mister Frattini had an extremely interesting past in Italy, before joining the European Commission. He was attacked by the press, not only in Italy, for connections with certain circles that had a not so legal activity in Italy”, Corlateanu declared, being the second MEP to bring accusations against the European Commission.

Corlatean also says that former Justice Minister Monica Macovei made a mistake promising investigations and prosecutions to the European officials: „She offered clear numbers – how many parliamentarians, how many ministers, how many dignitaries… It was an unusual situation. The figures were put in, processed and now the Brussels bureaucratic system – because it is a bureaucratic system, not a judicial one – expects the results”.

On her turn, Romanian MEP Renate Weber believes establishing an unrealistic level of expectations causes problems for the European Commission. Still, Weber says that the recent discussions referring to the inquiry procedures against former ministers should not bring sanctions from the European Commission or the European Parliament.