The judicial system "has done a lot of damage to our country"

"It is difficult to understand how an institution represented by judges could cause such damage to a country regarding its trustworthiness. One can expect more from judges. But that is it! Our country is based on an independent judicial system which considers that everything belongs to it and it doesn’t care about Romanians", declared the Romanian president, Traian Băsescu.

During a press conference, the Head of State asserted that Romania’s adhesion to the Schengen area is associated with the inefficacy of its judicial system.

"The Supreme Court of Justice is at its worst", the president mentioned.

Traian Băsescu declared that there was no EU judicial system that could cause such damage to a country like the Romanian one and emphasized that the Superior Council of Magistracy did not work properly during the previous term and this "brought the country to its trustworthiness issue".

Traian Băsescu declared: "The main problem has to do with the Superior Council of Magistracy where law was expected to be kept regarding the choices made by it. There is nobody to hold a more than six year term inside SCM. It was about the judges who thought that they could hold more than two terms. The three members of SCM, who held the second term, lacked reliability".

The president said that in the EU midway report which would be published at his reevaluation requirement, all the public institutions, excepting SCM, would be rated positively.

Traian Băsescu added that he called in question the summer report regarding the Romanian judicial system claiming that it was too harsh and he required a reevaluation.

Translated by: Cristina Anamaria Maricescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University