Romania's National Integrity Agency (ANI) was "sentenced" to technical redundancy by the Constitutional Court. Elsewhere in the news, still on ANI, Romanian Constitutional Court delivers a blow to the anti-corruption fight. Last but not least, Sweden wants to cut Romania a deal: 24 JAS 39 Gripen aircrafts without armament for 1.3 billion dollars, plus 100% offset.
Romania's National Integrity Agency (ANI) was "sentenced" to technical redundancy by the Constitutional Court, the Romanian press informs. This happened as seven out of nine Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) judges were being investigated for the last three weeks, ANI sources told Gandul. The investigated magistrates are Augustin Zegrean, Tudorel Toader, Petre Lăzăroiu, Ion Predescu, Aspazia Cojocaru, Acsinte Gaşpar and Puskas Valentin-Zoltan. Ioan Vida and Nicolae Cochinescu are off the hook.
Some stipulations in the ANI Law were declared non-constitutional. Romanian Justice minister Catalin Predoiu said: "We are waiting for the CCR’s motivation, and we will react institutionally, by elaborating a normative act project". He reassured ANI the Government was backing the institution. "It is very important to understand that ANI's good practice is essential to fulfil the conditions imposed by the Cooperation and Check mechanism (MCV)", he added.
According to Predoiu, ANI's capacity was consolidated and its 2009 progress extended, a March 2010 Commission report entails. The unconstitutionality would thus endanger the good results ANI achieved so far and might have a negative impact on the mechanism. "I want to assure European partners that the Ministry of Justice is perfectly aware of the assumed arrangements and will continue to make all efforts to fulfil them", Predoiu declared.
The Constitutional Court cut ANI's attributions short: it can't any longer notify the
