Swoboda slams Reding over Romania comments
Centre-left leader in the European Parliament calls on European justice commissioner not to “succumb to one-sided” judgement.
Hannes Swoboda, the leader of the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament, has called on Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice, to be “neutral and objective” when discussing the situation in Romania.
Swoboda’s comments were a reaction to an interview with Reding published in today’s edition (19 July) of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in which she commented on recent events in Romania. In the interview, Reding called for the creation of a European justice minister with the power to enforce the rule of law in member states. She said that events in Romania over the past two weeks “run counter to everything we have in the EU in terms of the rule of law”.
Reding said that Romania had made progress in reforming the judiciary but that this had been “annulled in one fell swoop, in a kind of coup by emergency decree”.
Swoboda said a European justice minister was a “valuable suggestion” but added that “commissioner Reding should not fall victim to the party political games being played”.
“Reding should act in a neutral and objective manner. This is what we expect from her as commissioner for justice. Otherwise she risks undermining the value of the European Commission’s evaluations,” he said in a statement.
Reding said that she found it “highly regrettable” that Swoboda “deliberately leaves out” of his account that Reding launched an infringement procedure in 2009 against Romania’s centre-right government over its use of emergency legislation to curb the independence of the telecommunications authority. “Mr Swoboda, please stop the quarreling between parties and work together with the Commission to strengthen the rule of law across Europe,” Reding said.
The spat between the centre-left Swoboda and Reding, a Christian Democrat, follows yesterday’s publication by the European Commission of a scathing report on the state of judicial reform and the fight against corruption in Romania. The report contains a list of actions it expects from Romania’s centre-left government under Prime Minister Victor Ponta.
“The S&D group fully supports the recommendations of the European Commission,” Swoboda said in today’s statement. “After the significant time it took the Commission to present its analysis I urge the Commission and commissioner Reding to not succumb to one-sided party political judgement.”