Maintaining an independent justice system in Romania

Romania's president faces an impeachment referendum this weekend. Trajan Basescu was already suspended by Parliament last month for allegedly usurping the prime minister’s power. The Constitutional Court ruled that Basescu didn’t break the law. The ruling was non-binding though, so the decision of whether or not to let him stay in office is put to voters. But this is more than a referendum on a president. Radio Romania International’s Iulian Muresan looks deeper into the difficulty Romania faces of maintaining a relatively independent Justice system. He spoke first with Mircea Geoana, the leader of Romania’s opposition Social Democratic party:

"At stake in this referendum is not the political future of Traian Basescu, but the future of Romania, what kind of democracy and political environment we'll have in the next two years. Romania must keep on functioning. Romania must prove to its citizens and to Europe that we are a functioning democratic state."

The suspended president however has a different story. Traian Basescu's discourse is something like this: Romania is currently led by an oligarchy, that is a handful of very rich and very powerful people who control the majority of Romania’s Parliament. During his campaign he gave names like Dinu Patriciu, a Romanian oil tycoon, Dan Voiculescu, a former communist activist who owns a TV station, Dan Ioan Popescu, a man who does business in the energy sector and even former president of Romania Ion Iliescu, terrified that he might be indicted for having brought the miners to beat up the citizens of Bucharest back in 1990. These people are currently being prosecuted and Basescu claims that if prosecutors are left alone and if justice is doing its job, these poeple risk ending up behind bars. According to Romanian journalist Traian Ungureanu Justice is the real stake of this battle:

“This entire agitation, the internal political fight that has plagued Romania in recent months, this whole war broke out because of Justice. Justice is not just an episode, or a partial pretext. Justice lies at the very heart of this conflict. Even if the politicians on either side of the barricade would never admit this, I'm sure that for the Romanian voters, Justice remains the main issue. We are now in a totally absurd situation. No one is able to say, for instance, why the president has been suspended. The legal grounds are non-existent. At the same time, the impeachment procedure, for which even its initiators have no arguments, this impeachment procedure started when dignitaries started having problems in the courts of Justice."

Brussels has recently voiced concern about the continuation of the reform of the legal system. German MEP Markus Ferber has sent a letter to EU Commissioner for Justice Franco Frattini, urging him to consider the possibility of activating the safeguard clause on Justice for Romania. Even the US ambassador to Bucharest is concerned about the recent developments within the Ministry of Justice. The reason? The new Minister of Justice, 30 year old Tudor Chiuariu has asked for the resignation of Doru Tulus, a prosecutor who has been working on the files of the so-called big fish of corruption. The former minister of Justice, Monica Macovei, who has been very much appreciated in Brussels for starting the reform of the judiciary and to whom we owe, to a large extent, Romania’s integration into the EU, accuses political pressure on prosecutors:  

“It's obvious that politicians are trying to interfere with the activity of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, that is, they're trying to stop the investigations. I'd like to reiterate, in case there are people who still don't know it, that this department led by Mr. Tulus started investigations in the biggest number of fraud and corruption cases last year, indicting many politicians across the political spectrum and contributing to lifting the EU red flag for corruption. It is obvious that the government and the people who rule the country these days, they want to intervene and stop investigations in these files."

But the current minister of Justice Tudor Chiuariu says there is no reason for concern:

“I want to publicly assure all prosecutors that during my time in office there will be no political interference in criminal investigations. I urge them to finalize all the files they're working on, to bring the accused before justice and to obtain sentences."

In the mean time the Romanian Parliament passed the law on the National Agency for Integrity, meant to control the illegal wealth of dignitaries. The law has been strongly requested by the EU since 2005. What former Minister of Justice Monica Macovei did not manage to do in 2 years, the new minister of Justice Tudor Chiuariu succeeded in a matter of days. The law has been passed by Parliament unanimously. Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu:

“The law on the National Agency for Integrity has been one of the 4 major objectives set together with the European Commission, the most important I would say. I congratulate Minister of Justice Tudor Chiuariu for having managed to pass this law. I have strong doubts that his predecessor would have managed to do this, given her bad relation with Parliament. Passing the law of the National Agency for Integrity is not just keeping one more pledge in the fight against corruption, but creating an efficient instrument to fight corruption."

The law passed by Parliament is different from that proposed by former Minister of Justice Monica Macovei. While the MPs say they made the law even tougher, there are voices that claim the law has been changed so that now it is completely useless.  The EU has hailed the passing of the law. They haven’t had a chance to analyze its content in detail, but they will do that before June this year, when Bucharest presents a report to the European Council and when the EU can activate a safeguard clause on Justice if it thinks Romania has not taken the necessary in reforming its legal system.

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