ECJ President: Threshold for abuse of office would exonerate offenses

Setting a threshold for abuse of office would exonerate offenses, the President of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Koen Lenaerts, said on Monday in Bucharest. "Focus should be on corruption and on the act leading to a criminal offense", he said.

„EU Law must be applied correctly and this can only be done by independent and impartial judges and Justice systems”, stated the ECJ President.

"If we speak of incrimination, then the common basic principle for all the EU Member States and the European Union itself is that a criminal offense must be clearly identified as such. Thus, attention should be paid to the definition of corruption or the act leading to a misdemeanor, a criminal offense, the act of not performing the duties of service, that should be clearly defined. It should not depend, at least in principle, on the size of the damage, because there can also be criminal offenses that do not cause damage but still are offenses", Koen Lenaerts added.

ECJ President thus responded to Romanian journalists questions linked to the current proposals of the Romanian ruling coalition to introduce a threshold for abuse of office – one of the controversial points in the Romanian Parliamentary procedure package to amend the current laws of Justice.

ECJ President was in Bucharest for a meeting with the judges of the Constitutional Court of Romania. He also paid a visit to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, where he met with the Head of this Court, Cristina Tarcea.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei