Romanian judicial council: EU report contradicts critics, calls for end to 'stigmatizing rhetoric'

Romania's Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) has asserted that the European Commission's 2026 rule of law report refutes many criticisms leveled against the country's judicial system over the past year. The CSM views the report as a crucial tool for grounding public debate about justice in factual, balanced, and institutionally accurate information.

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The Superior Council of Magistracy takes note of the publication of the European Commission's Rule of Law Report for 2026 and considers that this assessment provides an important benchmark for re-establishing public debate about justice on factual, balanced bases and in line with institutional reality.

The council highlighted that the report does not validate the "profoundly distorted representations" that have dominated political and media discourse. These narratives, CSM argues, have generalized isolated or unverified situations as characteristic of the entire justice system. Instead, the CSM maintains the report indicates that the 2022 justice laws have contributed to an improved legislative framework for judicial independence and functioning.

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The report does not confirm the profoundly distorted representations that have dominated a significant part of the political and media discourse over the last year, through which individual situations, insufficiently verified or false, have been generalized and presented as characteristics of the entire justice system.

CSM specifically pointed to the European Commission's assessment that the legislative changes did not lead to systemic deterioration, contrary to public claims. The council referenced its own June ruling, which found no factual support for extending individual accusations to the entire judiciary, aligning with international evaluations of Romania over the last four years. The report's recommendation, CSM noted, focuses on evaluating the application of the current framework rather than demanding radical changes.

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The European Commission's evaluation does not support the conclusion of a systemic deterioration of the functioning of justice, nor the claims that the legislative framework adopted in 2022 would have produced the negative effects invoked in the public sphere.

Furthermore, the CSM emphasized the report's observation regarding the need for effective public consultations and reduced use of emergency ordinances in legislative reforms. The council stressed that significant reforms affecting the judiciary must be conducted collaboratively with magistrates, not against them, citing the exclusion of the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the Prosecutor's Office from a working group as an example of flawed process.

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The recommendation formulated does not aim at a radical change of this framework, but at evaluating its application, in consultation with relevant actors, to improve the efficiency and governance of the judicial system.