The law has a general character and should not be created for a certain context, ex-president of the Constitutional Court Alexandru Tănase said after Parliament gave a first reading to a bill to amend the Law on the Prosecutor’s Office to change the way of electing the prosecutor general. According to Alexandru Tănase, the election of the prosecutor general, in the absence of an evaluation system, diminishes the credibility of the process and runs counter to the principle of transparency, IPN reports.
According to a draft law to amend the Law on the Prosecutor’s Office, proposed by PAS MP Igor Chiriac, the future prosecutor general will no longer be selected based on the score accumulated when assessing professionalism and integrity, but by a majority of votes of members of the Superior Council of Prosecutors.
“The election of a person by a deliberative body only by voting, without the existence of a scoring mechanism, reduces the level of transparency. When there is a score when appointing a person, it is easy to figure out what are the weak and strong points of this candidate. You can understand exactly the reasons for which he was or was not chosen. This amendment reverses the efforts made the last few years to impose more transparency in the process of appointing the prosecutor general. These changes appear to be circumstantial. They were made at the last minute, when the contest was already underway. Changing the rules of the game during the game is not an instrument that can be used in a state with European aspirations,” Alexandru Tanase stated in the program “In the context” on the public television channel.
He suggested the PAS government not to give up the mechanism for evaluating the performance of candidates for the position of prosecutor general and to leave this exercise to the new SCP members.
“When it comes to an official of this level, such as the prosecutor general, contextualization is not necessary. Laws are general in nature and are not made for a particular context. In order not to tarnish the image of the future prosecutor general, it is necessary to review these changes so that there is a scoring system, an evaluation system, which would allow society to know why the SCP members voted in one way or another. Moreover, we must bear in mind that the current SCP members have passed the vetting procedure. Therefore, they are persons who are outside aby doubts as to their integrity. We must treat the members of this body with good faith and trust and allow them to elect the prosecutor general, using a transparent election mechanism,” said the former CC president.
The bill to amend the law on the Prosecutor’s Office was passed by the votes of PAS MPs after being given a first reading. On Thursday, the document was to be given a second reading, but the author asked for its withdrawal from the agenda of the Parliament sitting.
