Answering the needs of the citizens who have been waiting for months to solve their legal problems, The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) welcomes the intention expressed in the SCM committees that the judicial activity should be extended and the judicial recess postponed to August.
The proposals were considered and proposed by the Superior Council of Magistrates' Committee on Legislation and Inter-institutional Cooperation at its meeting on 5 May 2020.
According to the meeting report, the committee considered that the Rules of Procedure of the Courts should be amended to include a text empowering the SCM to establish, in exceptional circumstances, derogatory rules on the duration of the judicial vacations and the cases to be heard during this period.
The SCM committee's proposal comes against the backdrop of the suspension of court activity at national level from January to May 2020 following the magistrates' protest against the law repealing special pensions, followed by the imposition of a state of emergency at national level due to the Covid 19 pandemic, during which time the courts only dealt with cases regulated by law as urgent.
The report of the SCM meeting of 5 May 2020 can be found here.
According to annual statistics, between 2 and 3 million cases are registered in the Romanian courts, and to these will be added appeals against fines imposed for non-compliance with the restrictions imposed during the pandemic, creating an excessive workload. In this context, the extension of judicial activity is an absolutely necessary solution.