UPDATE Romanian President Traian Basescu discussed with HotNews.ro readers online live on Wednesday, starting 3.00 p.m. The discussion can be followed here (Romanian language). In a first answer, he said Romania's not joining Schengen within the established time framework would be a tool to put pressure on Romanian Justice to clean up, but a tool that proves the weakness of Romanian politicians.
Asked if Romania's failure to join Schengen within the established time framework would put pressure on Romanian justice and a favorable framework to clean it up, he said he saw it as a tool to put such pressure, but a tool that shows "our weakness as political people".
He said that "we know from all reports since 2007 that the Romanian Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM) has not been a structure to encourage a positive evolution of Romania's justice sector", but on the contrary, "it was only a trade union-style organization". The situation, he said, should have prompted politicians long ago to change the law regulating the CSM. He said very few Romanians say that CSM was to blame for the malfunctioning of the Justice sector as people usually put responsibility on the shoulders of politicians, the government or the president. "Once we are burdened with this responsibility, we should have acted to change the law. I now have no doubt that this is the solution", he said.
Statements made by Traian Basescu in the online discussion:
"The issue of the social state is one of the major themes that politicians and citizens should deal with in the upcoming period. It is essential, as the Romanian state itself is constitutionally defined as a democratic and social state (....) While we have this definition of the for the Romanian state, nobody has defined yet what are the parameters for a social state. What social support the state provides. (...)"The critica
