President Klaus Iohannis: CSAT has given favourable opinion on wiretapping ordinance

The Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT) has given a favourable opinion on the emergency ordinance on wiretappings, President Klaus Iohannis said Friday. 

"CSAT has given a favourable opinion on this draft and its adoption by the Government will now represent a solution, albeit a temporary one, to a problem concerning both the state bodies and the public opinion," said the head of state. 

Iohannis explained that this draft law is meant to provide "in a fist stage" a solution to the activity of judiciary bodies, and then the legislature can take into account other solutions to debate "with all interested institutions and with the civil society." 

"There are opinions according to which the activity of prosecutor's offices, in the absence of the necessary technical infrastructure for conducting such special surveillance, would be affected both in terms of prosecution operations and in terms of administering a complete body of evidence. The emergency ordinance comes to respond exactly to these concerns," the President said. 

He added that the purpose of the emergency CSAT meeting was that of "analysing, debating and finding solutions in real time to the situation created by the Constitutional Court decision on the constitutionality of wiretappings, as it is known in the public space." 

In his opinion, this matter has two important aspects. 

"The first is related to observing the court decision and the need to harmonise the legislation with this decision. The second aspect is related to the need to ensure uninterruptedly the legislative framework for justice to do its job, be it about national security cases or corruption cases. Both aspects are essential for a functional rule of law, and I, as President, have pledged to guarantee the functioning of the rule of law in Romania," said Iohannis. AGERPRES