On 8 November 2023, the Committee of Ministers ended its supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgment in the case of Camelia Bogdan v. Romania.
This case concerns the denial of access to a court due to the impossibility for the applicant, a former career judge, to challenge her automatic suspension from office while her appeal against her exclusion from the judiciary in 2017, as a disciplinary sanction, was being considered by the High Court of Cassation and Justice.
The Romanian authorities have enacted legislative measures to implement the judgment in the framework of the judicial reform carried out in 2022. This reform has introduced two main relevant changes. First, it has eliminated the automatic character of the suspension from duty of a magistrate while his or her appeal is pending against a disciplinary sanction of exclusion from the judiciary. Concretely, the Superior Council of the Magistracy, acting as a disciplinary body, can decide to suspend a magistrate in this situation if it the suspension is necessary in view of the nature and gravity of the disciplinary fault established and its consequences. Second, the judicial reform has introduced clear provisions on the legal avenue open to a magistrate to challenge such a suspension. The jurisdiction to rule on the appeal against the suspension is vested, at first and last instance, in a panel of five judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which must examine it as a matter of urgency and with priority over other cases.
The new provisions apply to disciplinary actions initiated after their entry into force in December 2022.
