Brussels, 04/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - According to a report by AFP, the Romanian prime minister, Victor Ponta, who is also the interim minister for justice, proposed on Wednesday 3 April a number of candidates for the key posts of general and anticorruption prosecutors. Several experts have already criticised these appointments and have denounced a procedure that has breached the transparency requirements set out by the European Union.
The Commission has been monitoring the country closely since the institutional crisis of summer 2012, which saw a clash between the two heads of the executive, Victor Ponta and Traian Basescu, as well as attempts to manipulate the institutions. This monitoring has taken place as part of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) set up in 2007, and the most recent Commission report on the situation in Romania, published in January, again highlighted the need for a transparent appointments process.
President Basescu refused to validate the previous nominations by the prime minister, following the preliminary selection process involving several candidates, which he denounced for its lack of procedural transparency. Ponta subsequently put forward two candidates again, one of whom had already received a no vote from the Supreme Magistrates Council. According to AFP, experts have denounced a selection procedure where no criteria are defined, which is not made public and which certain commentators believe constitutes political horse-trading between the parties.
The European Commissioned has already said that some of its recommendations on the appointments procedure have not been respected and that it would be learning a number of lessons from this in its next CVM report. (SP/transl.fl)