Venice Commission on Criminal Codes: Criminal Code decriminalises guilty acts related to abuse of office; makes it impossible to convict culprits. Amendments adopted rapidly and non-transparently

The Venice Commission states, in regard to the amending of the Criminal Codes, that they were adopted through a rapid and non-transparent legislative process. In what concerns the Criminal Code, the most important observation is that it decriminalises guilty acts in connection with abuse of office, which makes it almost impossible to convict the culprits. In what concerns the Criminal Procedure Code, it considers that the amendments must be revised as a whole, with an emphasis on certain provisions. “The proposed changes to Article 297 appear indeed to create, without a convincing justification, the premises for a de facto decriminalisation of many facts amounting to the offence of abuse of office; as stressed by most interlocutors of the Venice Commission in Romania, this will make it much harder/quite impossible to prosecute and convict people for this offence,” reads the Venice Commission opinion on the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code. According to the document, this is in contradiction both with Romania’s international obligations under the anti-corruption instruments and the country’s own efforts in this direction, as well as with the requirements of the rule of law. The Venice Commission demands that, in light of these observations, the proposed changes to Article 297, Paragraph 1, should be revised, including from the standpoint of Romania’s obligations under international anti-corruption instruments. Also in what concerns the Criminal Code, the Commission recommends to reconsider and amend, in light of the comments made in its opinion, the provisions regulating corruption (Articles 291 and 292), embezzlement (Article 295), other provisions with a more general impact, such as those on the statute of limitations (Articles 154-155), false testimony (Article 273) and compromising the interests of justice (Article 277), and the definition of the civil servant (Article 175), ancillary penalties (Article 65), to bring them in line with the country’s international obligations. Regarding the Criminal Procedure Code, the Venice Commission’s recommendation is that the law amending it be revised overall, while taking into account the specific observations presented in its opinion, in order to make sure that the reform will not have a negative impact on the functioning of the criminal justice system. Although the entire set of amendments should be revised in detail, the Commission points especially toward the norms regarding communication on on-going criminal investigations (Article 4), starting a criminal investigation (Article 305), evidentiary thresholds and inability to use certain forms of evidence (Articles 139, 143, 153, 168), as well as the right to be notified about and take part to any criminal prosecution act (Articles 83 and 92), but also to final and transitory provisions. Likewise, according to the Commission, the amendments to the Criminal Codes were adopted through an excessively fast and non-transparent process, even though there were more than 300 amendments, many of them introducing radical changes. “During their adoption, frequent changes were brought to the texts, making consultations impossible,” the document shows.   Reactions   PSD’s Iordache: We won’t consider all recommendations from Venice Commission, CCR’s decisions have priority   The chairman of the Select Parliamentary Committee for the Justice laws’ package, PSD (Social Democratic Party, major at rule, ed. n.) deputy Florin Iordache, declared on Monday for RFI that the recommendations from the Venice Commission will not be entirely considered and said he is disappointed that this European forum “prejudged, without waiting for CCR (Constitutional Court of Romania, ed. n.) decision.” According to Iordache, “the Venice Commission basically has two opinions: one opinion on the Justice laws and one opinion on the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.” “We are waiting in the following days for the two reports to be published, because in the report on the laws of Justice there were made some amendments, after discussions, and in the other we are to wait the CCR’s decisions with priority. (…) I was disappointed, because they prejudged and we only asked for one thing: let us wait for the CCR’s decisions too, we can not only listen to one point, yours, let us see what the Court has to say, and between the two, because for us the CCR’s decisions are of priority, we will choose the best solution. It was seen in the first report as well, the one for the Justice laws, that there were many mistakes, which were then recognized and amendments were made,” he added. Asked if all the recommendations from the Venice Commission will be taken over, Florin Iordache replied: “No, of course not. I said it there too, for example, that a recommendation the Venice Commission insisted on was the one with the special section and I said that this recommendation cannot, under any circumstance, be taken over, especially now since it has been proven that over half of the Romanian magistrates had case files, this section proves its usefulness.” Iordache said that the Romanian authorities did not request the assistance of the Venice Commission. According to Iordache, the CCR’s decisions are priority. “For us, the CCR’s decisions are priority. That is what I said there and this is what I’m saying to you, because, in the end, among the CCR’s objectives are that of putting in accordance the Romanian legislation with the European legislation and with the treaties which Romania is a party to,” the PSD deputy added. Iordache also says that the Parliament is the only authority in Romania that can amend a law. “I have not seen until now a communication or a desire to communicate from the president. All I saw were criticism from the president. It’s not normal to criticize your own country, in Brussels, of all places,” Florin Iordache said.   RO+ movement: Felons’ puppets lost all legitimacy to amend justice package, criminal codes   The Romania Together Movement (RO+) considers that following the recent verdict of the Venice Commission “the felons’ puppets have lost all legitimacy to amend the justice package and the criminal codes.” In a Monday release, RO+ says the promoters of the changes to the justice package and the criminal codes “have lamentably...

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