The President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Durão Barroso exhorts the Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta to respect the independence of the local judges. Barosso has conveyed Brussels’ dismay, provoked by the attempts to influence the decision of the judges of the Romanian Constitutional Court, about the legitimacy of the Referendum, held on the President Traian Băsescu’s impeachment. The letter to the Romanian Prime Minister followed the country’s Constitutional Court decision to postpone the final pronouncing on the validity of the referendum for August 31.
That was not the first letter from Barosso to Ponta. In the beginning of July 2012, the President of the EU Commission has already appealed to the Romanian Prime Minister to re-enact the powers of the Constitutional Court, guaranteeing that its decisions will come into force. On August 7, another high-standing EU representative – the European Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding, has also expressed her concern about the independence of Romanian justice, sending a letter to the Romanian Constitutional Court’s Chairperson Augustin Zegeran.
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