Lia Savonea and Minister Radu Marinescu, invited to a committee of the European Parliament, for discussions on justice. A Recorder journalist is also participating

The head of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, Lia Savonea, the Minister of Justice, Radu Marinescu, and judge Claudiu Drăgușin were invited to a meeting of a European Parliament Commission, which is taking place right now. Recorder journalist Andreea Pocotilă, one of the filmmakers of the documentary “Captured Justice” is also at the meeting.

• The meeting takes place at a meeting of the Monitoring Group for Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights, a sub-committee of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament. The group monitors what is happening in the EU states regarding justice.
• The meeting is not broadcast online, as it is being held “in camera”.
• HotNews requested a point of view from representatives of the European Parliament regarding the purpose and possible consequences of this meeting, but until the publication of the article we have not received a response.

The meeting, which is scheduled to last two hours (from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.), also participates from Romania: Dana Gârbovan, from the National Union of Judges in Romania (UNJR) and Andreea Ciucă, from the Association of Magistrates in Romania (AMR).

According to sources from the European Parliament with whom HotNews discussed, initially the invitation was sent only to the Recorder and the Romanian authorities. After several discussions, the president of this subcommittee also invited representatives of Romanian magistrates.

The invitations for such meetings, the same sources explain, are the result of political negotiations between the groups in the European Parliament.

Recorder received the invitation “two, three weeks ago”, Mihai Voinea, one of the heads of Recorder and one of the producers of the documentary “Captured Justice”, told HotNews. He specified that at the time of receiving the invitation, the publication did not know who the other people were who were going to take part in the discussions.

Radu Marinescu confirmed that the revelations from the Recorder documentary will also be discussed

The Minister of Justice Radu Marinescu said, on Thursday morning, when contacted by HotNews, that he will participate in the meeting to which he was invited in the European Parliament.

“It is a discussion in the context of the monitoring that the group for democracy and the rule of law of the commission for civil liberties and justice of the EP is doing according to the planning for 2026 (Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria). Previously, there were France, Spain, the Czech Republic, etc. Various aspects will be discussed”, declared Radu Marinescu.

Asked if, based on his information, the Recorder documentary “Captured Justice” will also be discussed, Marinescu said: “Yes, the aspects that appeared last year.”

Rareș Bogdan: I would have liked to participate in the discussion, but I was not allowed

PNL MEP Rareș Bogdan, who is a member of the LIBE Commission but not of the group that organized today's meeting, says that the political group of which he is a part, EPP, had two proposals for guests, but they were not accepted.

“We proposed Vera Jurova and Vlad Nistor. It was not accepted. Jurova was told that she no longer has an institutional mandate that would allow her to comment on the current situation in Romania. In addition, given that the European Commission will be represented at the meeting, her participation could generate institutional ambiguity. As for Mr. Vlad Nistor, although he is a former Romanian deputy and a former MEP, it was not possible to identify a specific and current expertise directly related to the issues of the rule of law that will be at the center of the discussion, especially those related to the justice system and the fight against corruption,” Rareș Bogdan told HotNews.

He previously explained this to G4Media as well.

“I wanted to participate, but being a Romanian MEP, they considered that it was not appropriate for me to participate even as an observer in the debate, the debate being behind closed doors, so they did not accept me, unfortunately,” Rareș Bogdan explained.

He says that today's meeting is not an exceptional one, organized only for Romania: “On December 17 last year, Poland was discussed within this working group. And there were and will be other states. But everything is behind closed doors.”

Who other parliamentary groups proposed

Political sources from the European Parliament told HotNews that the S&D group, of which the PSD is a part, proposed as speakers at today's meeting Andreea Ciucă, president of the Court of Appeal from Târgu Mureș, and Dana Gârbovan, president of the Court of Appeal from Cluj.

Those from ECR, to which the AUR party in Romania is affiliated, proposed Florentin Țucă, who is a legal expert. The Green Group had a long list of proposed guests, including the Ministry of Justice or members of the Constitutional Court of Romania, according to HotNews sources.