JusMin Toader, Venice Commission's delegation tackle Justice laws package

The progress of the Justice Laws and their current stage, alongside the amendment of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code were the topics addressed by the Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader and the members of the Venice Commission's delegation on a two-day visit to Romania. 

The Justice Minister presented the progress of the amendment and completion laws of Law No. 303/2004 on the judges and prosecutors' status, the Law No. 304/2004 on the judicial organization and the Law No. 317/2004 on the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), a release on the relevant ministry's website reads.

According to the said website, the legislative procedure has been detailed revealing that the modification process of these laws kicked off in 2015, with the involvement of the Justice Ministry, the CSM, all the relevant actors in this process, the constitutional gears were displayed as foreseen by the Romanian legislation, aspects on the control of constitutionality regarding the three above-mentioned laws, the effects of the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR), as well as the obligation of the Parliament to match the dispositions found as unconstitutional with the CCR decision. 

The Justice Minister specified that the CCR admitted to certain objections of unconstitutionality regarding the three draft laws and that most of the said objections were repelled, subsequently answering to experts' questions, says the release. 

As for the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, Toader presented the alterations consisting in the transposition of the Directive 2016/343/EU of the European Parliament and of Council of 9 March 2016 into the national legislation, regarding the enhancement of certain aspects of the presumption of innocence and of the right to be present in court at one's own trial within the criminal procedures, and of the Directive 2014/42/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 regarding the freezing and seizing of the crimes' tools and fruit engineered in the European Union, as well as amendments for the agreement of the Codes' dispositions with CCR decisions.