Romania May Sue Commission Over Damning Justice Report

Romania's Social Democrat-led government on Wednesday said that it was considering suing the European Commission before the European Court of Justice over a highly critical report on the country's justice affairs and rule of law released by Brussels on Tuesday.

The report was issued under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism monitoring tool, imposed on Romania and Bulgaria when the joined the EU.

It was deemed the toughest criticism made by the Commission of any Romanian government since the country joined the EU in 2007.

"We're asking Romania to immediately suspend implementation of the [new] justice laws and subsequent emergency ordinances - and this is completely in line with what we already indicated previously to the Romanian government and also in a letter I wrote recently," the First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, said on Tuesday.

The report demands that the government stop all its procedures of appointing and dismissing chief prosecutors or the attorney general.

Romania's Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that the report was binding, and that Romania is therefore obliged to fulfill the recommendations.

The head of the Justice Commission in the Romanian parliament, Social Democrat MP Nicusor Halici, confirmed on Wednesday that the government was discussing whether to challenge the report at the European Court of Justice.

"We hope to get justice, justice for Romanians," he said. "Europe has double standards. We feel the recommendations in the report are unfair."

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila told news channel Anten3 on Tuesday night in a phone interview that she felt "disappointed and outraged."

Her deputy PM, Paul Stanescu, wrote on Facebook that the report was...