Romanian parliamentary commission brings changes to provisions of Justice laws that were found unconstitutional

A special parliamentary commission tasked with changing the Laws of Justice adopted on Monday a series of additional changes to the provisions of the amended laws which the Constitutional Court has found to be unconstitutional.

• The attempt by the governing coalition to change the Laws of Justice has sparked a wave of protests as they were seen as a move to subdue the Judiciary and stiffle the fight against corruption. But the changes brought by the MPs were challenged at the Constitutional Court, which earlier this year found some of the lesser changes to be unconstitutional.
• The parliamentary commission tasked with pushing the changes through has now started discussing the unconstitutional amendments.

Some of the changes adopted on Monday affect issues such as:

• the elimination of the president from the procedure of naming and dismissing High Court judges – his role is passed to the Supreme Council of Magistrates
• the elimination of the parliamentary commissions supervising the activity of intelligence services from the article that allowed them to check statements regarding the collaboration of magistrates with intelligence services.