Financiarul

Romania’s Minister of Justice and Citizens’ Freedoms Catalin Predoiu and his Slovakian counterpart Stefan Harabin signed a joint declaration concerning cooperation between Romania’s Ministry of Justice and Citizens’ Freedoms and Slovakia’s Justice Ministry, on Tuesday in Bucharest.

At the end of private talks between the two ministers and the signing of the cooperation agreement, Predoiu said the document proves the willingness of the two ministries, and implicitly of the two countries they represent, to cooperate at a European level, as well as Romania’s capability of meeting the European standards in this area.

‘This step comes after Romanian magistrates were openly congratulated by the European Commission and European Union member states for their application of the European arrest warrant, the most important pillar of the European body of law in the area of European judiciary cooperation.

The visit and warm talks, I dear say friendly, with Mr. Harabin, a distinguished magistrate of Slovakia and a respected minister and deputy prime minister of the Slovakian Government, offered me an opportunity to explain our developments of the past years, our achievements and the problems facing us,’ said Predoiu.

He mentioned that the bilateral talks did not focus only on the Romanian codes of law, human resources policy or pay, but also on better harmonisation between the justice ministers and the supreme council of the magistrates, as both countries have almost similar systems.

He also said the conclusion of a cooperation agreement started from the similitude of the judiciaries of the two countries, which made an exchange of lawmaking experiences appropriate.

Predoiu mentioned that Slovakia is considering some legislative amendments of the powers of the country’s supreme council of magistrates.

Predoiu showed that there had been a judiciary cooperation agreement between Romania and the former Czechoslovakia dating back to 1958, which the Slovakian Government assumed as a successor of part of Czechoslovakia.

He added that there was a wish for the Romanian justice ministry and the Slovakian justice ministry to continue their relationship directly, which Predoiu said was a step forward in Romania’s policy to establish connections between the Romanian Justice Ministry and its counterparts from as many European countries as possible in order to fortify its presence in the European agenda and bilateral judiciary cooperation.