What are the priorities of the new head of the CSM, Liviu Odagiu: “Let's defend the financial independence of magistrates”
The new president of the CSM, Gheorghe Liviu Odagiu, says that in 2026 the Superior Council of the Magistracy must “firmly” defend the financial independence of the magistrates, through salaries and pensions in accordance with the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court.
Odagiu's mandate at the head of the CSM begins on January 7. PHOTO The truth
In his candidacy project for the head of the CSM, judge Liviu Odagiu clearly explained that ensuring a “corresponding status” for judges and prosecutors it means a consolidated normative framework “that allow magistrates to fulfill their duties without any interference in their activity”but also implies compliance with this statute not only by the magistrates themselves, but also by the other powers in the state and by society as a whole.
“Starting from these essential milestones, I propose that in 2026 I ensure the necessary continuity in the efforts of the Superior Council of the Magistracy to protect the independence of the judiciary, in all its components. In particular, however, those elements of the statute that contribute to ensuring the financial independence of magistrates must be taken into account, as they have been the object of intense public contestation campaigns initiated and supported by the political factor for several years“, says Odagiu in the quoted project.
The candidacy project can be consulted HERE.
The judge believes that the judicial system is subject to some “explicit manifestations of hostility” what “affects public trust in judges and prosecutors and in the activity of the judicial authority”.
“From this perspective, the year 2025 a represented the peak of the attacks directed against justice, especially in the context of the resumption of discussions regarding the service pensions of judges and prosecutors. Practically, the vast majority of public approaches on this topic have turned into a new opportunity to denigrate the judicial authority, inducing the false perception in public opinion that judges and prosecutors are one of the causes of the budgetary difficulties faced by the Romanian State and some of the privileged members of Romanian society“, the project also states.
Part of the candidacy project submitted by Odagiu. CSM PHOTO
We remind you that judge Gheorghe Liviu Odagiu was elected on Thursday, during the Plenary session of the Superior Council of the Magistracy, in the position of president.
The mandate of the president, like that of the vice-president of the Superior Council of Magistracy, is for one year, and its exercise by the new management of the Council will start from January 7, 2026.
Who is Gheorghe Liviu Odagiu
Magistrate Gheorghe-Liviu Odagiu, who is 50 years old, has been a judge since 2000 and held the positions of judge at the Sibiu District Court, judge at the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal, Criminal Section and president of the Criminal Section of the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal, then he was president of the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal.
Five years ago, when he was president of the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal, he harshly criticized the then governors, who, just like today, were promoting a legislative project regarding the elimination of the service pensions of magistrates.
An “ardent” defender of special pensions.
Odagiu claimed then that “a citizen does not need a judge in the courtroom to think about what he will live on in retirement or what he will eat tomorrow”.
“A citizen needs a judge in the courtroom who has ensured all the comfort, comfort that will cause him to focus only on the problem of the respective citizen. If I think from tomorrow what I will eat in 20 years, I will certainly not be able to concentrate one hundred percent on the citizen's problem, and find a correct solution. In addition, this attack on service pensions is only the beginning.
A traumatized judge is a possible judge who can be easily blackmailed, he is a possible judge who questions whether or not to stay in the system and who wants to go to a private environment regardless of what it is, and Romania does not allow itself the luxury of losing magistrates who leave the system for a certain reason, that the state is not able to ensure another power in the state, that one or two powers are not able to ensure the third a real independence and a standard of living that effectively enshrines this independence”, declared in 2020 Liviu Odagiu.
