Draft resolution of the European Parliament on the rule of law in Romania: „deep concern” about undermining the independence of the judiciary, condemns the violent intervention of gendarmes, condemns the political restrictions on media freedom and calls for the restoration of legislation on NGOs

The draft resolution of the European Parliament on the rule of law in Romania, consulted by G4Media.ro, uses extremely harsh formulations when referring to Romanian authorities and speaks in unprecedented terms about the legislation promoted by the PSD-ALDE coalition in the fields of justice and the judiciary, anti-corruption, mass -media, and NGOs.

The draft resolution was agreed on by the representatives of the political groups of the European Parliament’s Justice and Freedoms Committee (LIBE Committee).

The extremely harsh draft resolution constitutes in fact an indictment of the major changes made by the Parliament and the Government to the judiciary, to the fight against corruption and other key areas, such as freedom of expression and freedom of NGOs.

The draft condemns the „violent and disproportionate” intervention of gendarmes and police officers at the protest of the diaspora on August 10th.

We recall that the leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament will discuss this resolution on Thursday 8 November, and if there is an agreement, it will be voted on November 14 in the plenary of the European Parliament.

Please note that this draft may change as a result of negotiations between political groups in the European Parliament.

The 13 point included in the draft.

The European Parliament

1. Stresses that it is fundamental to ensure that the common European values listed in art. 2 TEUs are fully respected and that fundamental rights as enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union are guaranteed;

2. Is deeply concerned about the reformed legislation on judiciary laws and criminal justice in Romania, in particular regarding its potential to undermine the independence of the judiciary in a structural way and the capacity to effectively combat corruption in Romania, and to weaken the rule of law;

3. Condemns the violent and disproportionate intervention of the police forces during the Bucharest protests in August 2018;

4. Calls on the Romanian authorities to establish safeguards to ensure a transparent and legal basis for any institutional cooperation and to avoid any interference that goes beyond the verification and balancing system; calls for strengthening parliamentary scrutiny of intelligence services;

5. Urges the Romanian authorities to counter any measures that would compromise the fight against corruption and implement the national anti-corruption strategy;

6. Strongly recommends reconsidering the legislation on the financing, organization and functioning of NGOs with respect to their potential to have an intimidating effect on civil society, as well as inconsistent with the principle of freedom of association and the right to privacy, and to align it fully EU Framework;

7. Expresses its deep concern about the political restrictions on media freedom and the legal proposals penalizing Romania’s denigration abroad and reintroducing defamation into the Criminal Code;

8. Urges the Parliament and the Government of Romania to fully implement the recommendations of the European Commission, GRECO, and the Venice Commission, and to refrain from any reform that would jeopardize the rule of law, including the independence of the judiciary; urges that the continuation of civil society engagement and addressing the aforementioned issues in a transparent and comprehensive process; encourages to call on the Venice Commission to proactively evaluate the legislative measures in question before their final approval;

9. Calls on the Romanian Government to cooperate with the European Commission in accordance with the principle of loyal cooperation, as laid down in the Treaty;

10. Reiterates its regret that the Commission has decided not to publish the EU Anti-Corruption Report in 2017 and urges the Commission to resume its annual anti-corruption monitoring in all Member States without delay; calls on the Commission to develop a system of strict indicators and uniformly applicable criteria to measure the level of corruption in the Member States and to assess their anticorruption policies in line with Parliament’s resolution of 8 March 2016 on the Annual Report 2014 on the Protection of Financial Interests of the EU;

11. Strongly calls for a regular, systematic and objective monitoring and dialogue process involving all Member States in order to protect the core values of the EU in terms of democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law, involving the Council, Parliament, in its resolution of 25 October 2016 on the establishment of an EU mechanism on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights (the DRF Pact); reiterates that this mechanism should include an annual report with country-specific recommendations;

12. Calls on the European Commission, as guardian of the Treaties, to monitor the actions taken following the recommendations of the Romanian authorities, continuing to provide full support to Romania in finding the right solutions;

13. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the European Commission, the Council, the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the President of Romania.

Traducerea: Ruxandra Stoicescu