Cătălin Predoiu, Minister of Justice: “I am ready to close this mandate. (…) What does the protocol say on the roundabout

Cătălin Predoiu, the Minister of Justice in the PNL – PSD – UDMR Government, said in the OFF/OnTheRecord show on Aleph News, that he is ready to end his mandate at the head of the Ministry of Justice, in the perspective of the round of prime ministers.

“I am ready to close this mandate. We had the following “failures”: the abolition of the SIIJ, 3 laws of the Justice, positive opinion from the Venice Commission, MCV successfully raised, the Penal Codes we made since last spring. What does the protocol on the ring road say – I don’t know because I haven’t read it. Then let the Justice go to the PSD, what is the problem? PSD has valuable people, and PNL has good people, capable of taking over the Ministry of Justice. PSD has three former ministers of Justice”, said Predoiu.

As for the issue of special pensions for magistrates, Cătălin Predoiu says that the problem is in the portfolio of the Minister of Labour, not in the Ministry of Justice and claims that in PNRR there is “a real schizophrenia” regarding pensions.

Here is the statement made by the Minister of Justice, Cătălin Predoiu, regarding the issue of special pensions for magistrates:

“The problem is in the portfolio of the Ministry of Labor, it is not a governance problem in the Ministry of Justice. The magistrate’s pension is an element of the magistrate’s status. A magistrate cannot be independent if you do not ensure him a right to a pension corresponding to his work and the prohibitions he has in his career. The status of magistrates is internationally protected by two UN resolutions, by international acts. If you want to have an independent Justice, you must understand that you must create a special statute for the magistrate. There are large pensions for magistrates, but the problem is why we, as a state, were not able to provide large pensions for the others as well. Magistrates are asking for legislation to stop an excess of the salary paid by the pension. PNRR was a badly thought out program. Under the PNRR conditions, there is a true schizophrenia regarding pensions: the first condition speaks of contribution, the last one speaks of ensuring constitutional protection. The minister who was not from the PNL, who wrote the PNRR, did not consult with anyone in the Government either. The issue raises issues of clear political abuse. Why are we taking the issue to magistrates’ pensions, when the main issues must be the discussion of these conditions? I told them: through the rule of law mechanism, you recommend us to put the system into operation, on the other hand, we have this condition through the PNRR. The condition in the PNRR is contradictory to another condition in the PNRR. The European Commission should take note of these discrepancies. If you go and discuss with the European Commission the issues on the table, explain and have arguments, you can win the case”.