Romania: Police violence against peaceful protestors
Quote from Greens/EFA Co-Presidents Ska Keller and Philippe Lamberts
Following the recent events in Romania, Greens/EFA Co-Presidents Ska Keller and Philippe Lamberts comment:
“The use of violence by the Romanian police against peaceful protestors is unacceptable. We stand with all those Romanians inside the country and coming from the diaspora who fight for democracy and against corruption. It is impressive to see the strong engagement by so many Romanians living all over Europe.
“We call on the Romanian government to respect European values such as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. They have to refrain from the excessive use of force.
“We call on the European Commission to fulfill it’s role of guardian of the treaties. Both the juridical reform project and the reform of the criminal law concerning crimes related to corruption raise concerns when it comes to the respect of rule of law.
“We ask the European Commission to trigger the Rule of Law Framework to assess both sets of legislation. In the meantime, the Romanian authorities should put the changes on hold while waiting for the assessments of both the European Commission and the Venice Commission.”