US Ambassador Klemm: We are closely monitoring Parliament's initiative regarding new package of modifications to justice laws

The United States of America are "closely" monitoring Parliament's initiative to present a new package of modifications to be brought to the justice laws, some of them even likely to affect the collaboration existing between the US authorities and the Romanian counterparts in this field, US Ambassador Hans Klemm stated on Tuesday.

He appreciated the initiative of President Klaus Iohannis to send the package to the Venice Commission for consultation.

"Again and again, especially last year, I presented very clearly our concerns regarding the first package of justice laws, which are going through different stages of analysis. I believe that the President's decision to send the laws to the Venice Commission for consultation at international level is a very good one," Klemm pointed out.

The US are paying much attention at this time to the new proposals of modifications to the criminal law, he said.

"We are now watching as closely as we can Parliament's initiative regarding another package that would respond to the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Romania taken in the past couple of years, with respect to the Criminal procedure Code and the Criminal Code," explained Hans Klemm. 

The diplomat also reminded about the US-Romanian cooperation in the judicial field.

"The United States cooperate of an efficient manner with the prosecutors. (...) We want to be sure that these changes won't make it difficult or even impossible for the US authorities in the justice field - agents or prosecutors - to cooperate with their Romanian counterparts," he said.

Asked whether there existed concerns that such a thing could actually happen, Klemm said: "Yes, we are looking into this very carefully."

When asked to mention some precise changes in this context, Klemm said "one example could be the discussion about the kind of evidence that the courts will be able to consider in a criminal case, the type of evidence."

"Because, if it's impossible to consider video monitoring, this would eventually reduce our possibilities of cooperation with the Romanian authorities in the justice field," said the US official.