Romanian MPs pass controversial changes to criminal legislation

Romanian MPs pass controversial changes to criminal legislation
By Carmen Simion in Bucharest April 24, 2019

The Romanian Chamber of Deputies adopted on April 24 a series of changes to the criminal codes that have been widely criticised for weakening the rule of law and Romania’s anti-corruption fight. The opposition has announced it will challenge the bills at the Constitutional Court.

The ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) has been focusing on changing justice and criminal legislation since coming to power, despite mass protests in the country and criticism from the EU and Romania’s foreign partners.

The PSD has been pressuring the government to pass the changes by emergency decree, to have them enforced sooner, but Justice Minister Tudorel Toader — who resigned last week after he lost the support of the PSD — refused to promote the decree despite promising to do so earlier this year. 

PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, who is in the process of appealing a sentence issued last year for misuse of state funds, is seen one of the beneficiaries of the changes.

According to local newswires, the changes to the criminal procedure code received 181 votes  in favour, while the amendments to the criminal code received 180 votes in favour. The ruling coalition, made up of the PSD and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (Alde) needed 165 votes to pass the legislation. The new legislation was passed with the help from MPs from the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) as the ruling coalition no longer has majority in the Chamber of Deputies, following a series of defections from the PSD.

The amendments passed by MPs include decriminalising negligence in the workplace and lower sentences for some offences.

The leader of the largest opposition party, the National Liberal Party (PNL), Raluca Turcan, said her party will challenge the bills at the Constitutional Court.

On April 3, Romania’s foreign partners urged Bucharest to avoid changes to justice laws that would weaken the rule of law and Romania’s anti-corruption fight.

“We are deeply concerned about the integrity of Romania’s justice system, which has been buffeted by unpredictable modifications that do not further Romania’s efforts to consolidate judicial progress. To the contrary, the cumulative effect of these modifications carries the risk of slowing the fight against corruption and undermining judicial independence,” the embassies of 12 states — Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the US — said in the joint statement, adding that official requests for a dialogue on the subject have remained unanswered since January.

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