On her visit to Bucharest, ELI President Christiane Wendehorst met Tudorel Toader, Romanian Minister of Justice, and Marieta Safta, State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice. Toader was appointed as Minister of Justice in 2017. He is a former judge of Romania’s Constitutional Court and chancellor of the University of Iasi. He is also a member of the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters. The meeting was characterised by a very friendly atmosphere and the ministry exhibited great interest in ELI’s activities and also signaled their commitment for a future cooperation.
Following the meeting with the minister, Christiane Wendehorst met the President of the Constitutional Court of Romania, Valer Dorneau, inform him about the ELI. Dorneanu was President of the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Romanian Parliament) between December 2000 and November 2004. Since 2013 he has been a judge in Romania's Constitutional Court and took on the role of President in 2016. He is also a Professor at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Bucharest. Common topics and interests were identified, such as the ELI project on Common Constitutional Traditions in Europe in particular and the role of courts in Europe in general. Also, the difficult balance between the independence of judges on the one hand and their will to actively contribute towards lawmaking on the other was discussed.
Finally, the ELI President met the President of the National Association of Romanian Bars, Gheorghe Florea, who expressed great interest in the ELI’s activities. Florea is a practising lawyer that specialises in civil procedure, litigation, civil law, contracts, fiscal law and insurance law. Since 2011 he has been an arbitrator at the International Arbitration Court of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In a vivid discussion, Florea and Wendehorst identified many commonalities in various topics and the Association of Romanian Bars also signaled an interest in a future cooperation with the ELI.
