JusMin Toader on activating EU Treaty's Article 7: Romania is not in Poland or Hungary's situation

Romania is not in the situation of Poland or Hungary to receive sanctions against an EU member state under Article 7 of the Treaty, Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said on Wednesday in Strasbourg.

"The principle of equality, and not only in Romania, but everywhere, entails being in the same legal hypothesis. We are not, Romania is not in the situation of Poland or Hungary. We did not have such a thing. There was a slight syncope when the president needed more time to understand a decision of Romania's Constitutional Court, obviously because it was a very significant and important decision that had 133 pages. That is why he needed more time for reading and understanding it. Other than that, in Romania no one has raised the issue of 'respecting or not respecting the Court's decisions.' First Vice-President Timmermans, at yesterday's meeting, said very clearly: The discussion about activating Article 7 against Romania is out of the question," Toader told private TV station Digi 24.

Regarding the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, the Justice Minister reminded that it started from three recommendations and stressed that the authorities in Bucharest want an objective report.

"We have fulfilled them. We fulfilled them 10 years ago and we have only 12 now. Therefore, the Commission had nuanced its recommendations in form and contents," he added.

Tudorel Toader added that since he has been a Justice Minister, he has never missed, with the exception of 2 October, 2018, any discussions about each of the ten recommendations.

"Yes, I think we are close to fulfilling them. (...) We want an objective report to establish the progress recorded. Wherever we can come with the amendments to the laws of justice, the three ones, of such a nature as to comply with the European standard, to observe the European standard, to take over the Venice Commission's recommendations, views, we will do it shortly by emergency ordinance," Toader said. AGERPRES (RO - author: Catalina Matei, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi; editor: Simona Iacob)