Should the head of state turn down the Justice Minister’s proposals, the procedure will be resumed. The interim prosecutor general and former ACD chief, Daniel Morar, announced he has not applied for any of these offices because the procedure was not “transparent.” However, the list of the 11 candidates for the two positions included the name of Codruta Kovesi, the prosecutor general of Romania between 2006 and 2012. Mona Pivniceru says that, in choosing Tiberiu Nitu and Ioan Irimie, she took into account the suggestions made by the European Commission:

Mona Pivniceru: “We have conducted the procedures recommended by the EC president Jose Manuel Barroso, and by the three letters coming from the European Commission. I made an assessment of the documents submitted by the prosecutors who took part in the selection process, and of the extent to which they met the criteria defined for the interview stage. I would like to commend all applicants for the courage of taking part in such a competition, while all eyes were focused on this procedure.”

The European Commission has taken note of the two proposals and announced it will make its own assessment of the entire procedure, as soon as it has been completed. In turn, the US Ambassador to Romania, Mark Gitenstein, has emphasized the importance of the selection of the new prosecutor general and anti-corruption prosecutor, which may influence Washington’s views of the Strategic Partnership with Romania. Ioan Irimie is an anti-corruption prosecutor with the Cluj branch of the ACD, an institution he headed until 2005. He investigated many important cases, including one that targeted former Deputy Gabriel Bivolaru, the first Romanian MP sentenced to prison after 1990, for bank fraud.

Tiberiu Nitu was the senior deputy of the prosecutor general of Romania between 2008 and 2011. Since October 2011, he has been an inspector with the Judicial Inspection Department of the Higher Council of Magistrates. The two were appointed for three-year terms in office, which may be renewed one time. Laura Codruta Kovesi’s term as Prosecutor General of Romania came to an end one month ago, and that of the ACD chief Daniel Morar ended in February.