Deputy PM Barna: Modification saying magistrates will be sent to trial with CSM approval - a smaller compromise

Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna, co-chair of the USR PLUS (Save Romania Union - Freedom, Unity, Solidarity Party) Alliance on Monday said that the modification brought by the Legal Committee of the Chamber of Deputies to the draft on the abolition of the Special Section for the Investigation of Judicial Crimes (SIIJ), which provides for the prosecution of magistrates to be done only with the approval of the CSM (Supreme Council of Magistracy) represents "a smaller compromise" than the major need of dismantling the SIIJ. "The goal is for the Special Section to become history. It's a compromise. The CVM will only be lifted by fulfilling this condition. This measure, this compromise that is currently being found, we will see how it works and, depending on that, we can continue to discuss it in the future too. I believe that the decision also triggers some more responsibility for the CSM and this is why I see it like a smaller compromise compared to the major need to dismantle the Special Section," Barna said at Parliament when asked about the modification brought by the Legal Committee to the project on the dismantling of the SIIJ. He said that the USR PLUS MPs will definitely vote for the dissolution of the Special Section. Asked if this modification would create a super-immunity for magistrates, Barna explained: "It is not a super-immunity, it is an opinion of a section about a certain magistrate related to the latter's prosecution." The Legal Committee of the Chamber of Deputies on Thursday issued a favourable opinion regarding the draft to dissolve the Special Section for Investigating Judicial Crimes, and also adopted a modification belonging to the Deputy from the national minorities group, Ionel Stancu, saying that magistrates can only be sent to trial with the approval of the Supreme Council of Magistracy. The draft is to be debated in the plenary sitting of the Chamber of Deputies, which is the first forum notified. The Senate is the decision-making chamber. AGERPRES (RO - author: Alina Novaceanu, editor: Andreea Rotaru, EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)