Speaker Zgonea asks judicial committee and parliamentary groups' leaders to resume talks on Codes'

Deputies' Chamber Speaker Valeriu Zgonea wrote some letters asking judicial committee chairman Bogdan Ciuca and the leaders of the parliamentary groups to take steps for the resumption with celerity, after the beginning of the new parliamentary session, of the debates on the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code amendments, following the critics brought by the European Commission to Romania in the latest Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) report. 

Zgonea brings to mind that, at present, with the judicial committee there are registered a series of drafts on amending the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, but also many resolutions of the Constitutional Court waiting to be transposed in the legislation in the area. 

"Some of these legislative initiatives were characterized in the latest report of the European Commission on the progress Romania registered within the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism as being 'original,' raising controversies in the society and concerns about the limitation of the judicial authorities' capacity of continuing the fight against corruption. Moreover, many of these drafts have already received a negative opinion from the Superior Council of Magistrates. In the same package, however, there are also initiatives drawn up by Romania's Government, through the Justice Ministry, aimed at harmonising the two Codes in full agreement with the requirements and needs of the judicial system. In this respect, for the clarification of these matters, I propose the resumption with celerity - once the new parliamentary session begins, of the debates on these major interest topics, with the participation of all institutions with duties in the area - the Justice Ministry, the Superior Council of Magistrates, the High Court of Cassation and Justice, and the Prosecutor's Office near the High Court of Cassation and Justice," Valeriu Zgonea shows in an open letter addressed to judicial committee chairman Bogdan Ciuca, three days before the beginning of the first parliamentary session this year. AGERPRES