Turcan: PNL has corrected PSD measure blocking justice system, early retirement of magistrates

Deputy Prime Minister and First Deputy-Chairwoman of the National Liberal Party (PNL) Raluca Turcan states that the PNL government has corrected "the PSD [the Social Democratic party] measure that could lead to the blocking of the justice system: early retirement of judges starting January 1, 2020." 

"Today [Friday, ed.n.], we have avoided having a sharp decrease in the number of magistrates next year and, implicitly, a reduction of the efficiency and quality of the act of justice. We decided in today's Government meeting to extend the time limits of the laws of justice mutilated by the PSD, which provided for the early retirement of the magistrates, the transition from two-judge to three-judge panels and the switch from four to two years regarding the training period within the National Institute of Magistracy (INM)," stresses Raluca Turcan, in a statement posted on Friday evening on her social-media page. 

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the recommendations of the Venice Commission experts and those in the CVM report have been thus respected. 

"We have the written agreement of the CSM [the Superior Council of Magistrates] regarding these changes, which assesses that more than 2000 experienced magistrates could have left the system through early retirement, in parallel with a restriction of the admission conditions to the magistracy. Doubling the training period for the INM would have meant that for two years, there wouldn't be any graduates of the National Institute of Magistracy from among whom judges and prosecutors could be appointed," Raluca Turcan said. 

The head of the Prime Minister's Chancellery, Ionel Danca, said on Friday evening that the Government has debated, at first reading, a draft law, for which it will decide at the next sitting to assume responsibility for some measures to be extended for 2020 in the field of justice. Danca stated, regarding the draft law on justice, that it was decided that the early retirement of magistrates should be postponed "from January 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021". "The provisions related to the judicial panels for the appeals courts with 3 judges are also postponed from January 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021 and within the same time limits, are extended the deadlines related to the organization and conduct of the admission examination at the National Institute of Magistracy," he said.