CSM, harsh reaction after the CCR decision. Accuses of “serious effects on the functioning of the judicial system”
Protest for independent justice, in front of the CSM. Photo: Inquam Photos / Alexandru Nechez
The Superior Council of Magistracy, made up of representatives of judges and prosecutors, harshly criticizes the decision by which the Constitutional Court established that the law that increases the retirement age of magistrates and reduces their pensions is constitutional. The CSM talks about the “elimination of the service pension” and a possible “inevitable systemic collapse”.
The CSM says, in a press release, that “this new legislative framework will produce serious effects on the functioning of the judicial system.”
“The increase in the retirement age of magistrates and the elimination of the service pension not only risks generating departures from the judicial system, but also turns the profession of magistrate into an unattractive one for the new generations of legal professionals”, accuses the CSM.
A possible “inevitable systemic collapse”
The representatives of prosecutors and judges accuse that “the only concern of the other powers in the state is affecting the status of magistrates”:
“The large deficit of magistrates, the number of cases four times higher than the European average of the cases registered before the courts and the impossibility of staff recruitment were constantly brought to public attention, being ignored by the other powers in the state, the only concern expressed in this regard being that of affecting the status of the magistrate.
In relation to the direct consequences on the protection of the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens and the resolution of cases within a reasonable period, the Council is obliged to identify optimal measures to regulate the activity in order to avoid that justice in Romania enters an inevitable systemic collapse.
A quality justice can only be imagined under the conditions of reaching European standards in terms of the volume of cases and the human effort to solve them”.
The CSM says that magistrates can no longer be independent
The CSM claims that “the new regulation definitely requires the reanalysis of the regime of incompatibilities and prohibitions of magistrates, one of the most restrictive in the entire European Union”.
“The elimination of service pensions transforms the status of magistrates into an apparent guarantee of their independence, unsupported by reality,” the CSM also accuses.
The institution says that the request of the ICCJ, led by Lia Savonea, for the CCR to request an analysis of the EU Court of Justice on this project would have been necessary, but that this may happen in the future, through other methods.
“At the same time, the Council appreciates that it would have been essential to analyze the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding the observance of the guarantee of judicial independence through the new draft law, but this possibility still exists and can be capitalized in individual situations with which the courts will be vested”, the CSM also transmitted.
The judges of the Constitutional Court decided on Wednesday, after five adjournments, that the law increasing the retirement age of magistrates and reducing the amount of service pension is constitutional. The decision was taken by 6 votes to 3.
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