Olesea Stamate: the SJC will continue its work, but more slowly
The Supreme Court of Justice will continue to work, even though several judges have announced their resignation, the chairwoman of the Parliament's legal, appointments and immunities committee, Olesea Stamate, told RliveTV.
She noted that the Ministry of Justice is working on temporary solutions to replace judges who have left. At the same time, following the reform, 20 out of 33 judges will remain in the Supreme Court of Justice.
"The court will continue to operate in a certain regime, obviously much slower, and not all the cases before the court will be examined. At the same time, we are considering, together with the Ministry of Justice, some temporary solutions to cover this shortage of judges at the Supreme Court of Justice. It is not totally blocked. It is true that it is slowing down, but in the meantime we are also looking for solutions to ensure that the Court continues at least with a certain number of judges, not all of them, to continue its work during the vetting period," said Olesea Stamate.
Olesea Stamate added that the draft law aimed at reforming the Supreme Court of Justice provides for a reduction in the number of judges at the SCJ from 33 to 20. The integrity assessment of candidates to the Supreme Court of Justice will take half a year, and the judge who fails the integrity test will be dismissed and deprived of the right to hold public office for 7 years. At the same time, he will be deprived of his rights to the one-off severance pay and special pension.
Parliament's head of the legal committee says that the previous increase in judges' salaries did not help to reduce corruption in the system, as there were no tough control mechanisms. According to Olesea Stamate, magistrates who pass the vetting process will benefit from higher salaries so that the temptation to take bribes disappears, and control mechanisms will be established to fight corruption.
Speaking about the General Assembly of Judges, to be held on 17 March, Olesea Stamate said that new changes soon to be approved by parliament require the presence of at least 30% of judges for the meeting to be deliberative. In order to avoid the risk of deadlock, the General Assembly of Judges could be opened by the Justice Minister, the PAS MEP added.
The reform of the SJC will start as soon as magistrates are promoted to the Superior Council of Magistrates.
Currently, out of 28 judges, candidates for the position of member of the Superior Council of Magistracy, only 5 have passed the evaluation. The competition has been running for almost a year. Olesea Stamate says the evaluation of all judges in the system will last until 2025.
