Position Paper on the draft law amending Law no. 3/2016 on the Prosecutor’s Office

SUMMARY

This opinion is formulated as a response to the request of the Ministry of Justice no. 03/3861 of 24.04.2024.
The opinion is expressed on the the draft law amending Law no. 3/2016 on the Prosecutor’s Office (sole no. 339/MJ/2024)[hereinafter – “Draft law”]. The mentioned draft law aims to amend art. 55 of Law no. 3/2016, by introducing para. (11) and the reformulation of para. (4). The conclusion of the Group of Experts in the field of Justice (GEJ) is to support the nominated draft law. This conclusion is mainly based on 2 reasonings:

• the obligation to comply with the decisions of the Constitutional Court;
• the need to eliminate a legislative omission/lack of proportionality in the regulation that can lead to the violation of some human rights (i.e. the right to work, the right to privacy, etc.).î

At the same time, the GEJ recommends the author of the draft to assess the need to supplement art. 55 para. (11) with the phrase “and the prohibitions provided for in art. 15 para. (2) letters f) and letter i)”.

At the same time, the GEJ recommends to the authors of the draft to supplement art. 55 of Law no. 3/2016 with provisions according to which the period of suspension of the prosecutor from office pursuant to art. 55 para. (1/1) of Law no. 3/2016 not to constitute seniority in the position of prosecutor.