Minister of Justice Oleg Efrim on Monday, June 27, repeated his request that Democrat Vlad Plahotniuc, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, be replaced on the Council for Legal Reform, warning that he would leave the Council himself if the request remained unsatisfied, Info-Prim Neo reports. Oleg Efrim told reporters after the Council's meeting today that he would submit a request in writing to the Council and would quit if not listened to. Earlier, Efrim said that the Government and he personally doubted Plahotniuc’s professional competence in this field. In another development, Oleg Efrim said that, as a body created by presidential decree, the Council had more powers than appropriate, for example, to assess the make-up and the work of some task-forces. In reaction, Speaker and concurrently interim President Marian Lupu said that he didn't receive any formal request on Vlad Plahotniuc's replacement and that no one would be excluded from the Council. He also disagreed with Efrim about the Council's range of authority, saying that it was in fact “a platform for broad debates on reforms in the judicial system”. On Monday, the Council decided to create a working group to assist the Ministry of Justice with developing a Strategy for Judicial Reform, which is to be adopted by Parliament until the end of this year. The Strategy is needed, among other, to allow Moldova to gain access to 60 million euros to implement the judicial reform, said Lupu. The Council for Legal Reform was created in May through a decree signed by Marian Lupu and aims to coordinate governmental efforts in the area.