Venice Commission President Marta Cartabia said within a visit to the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) that democratic institutions are always affected when the independence of the justice system is weakened.

According to a CCR release sent to AGERPRES, the Court hosted a working visit on Monday by a delegation from the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission) at its headquarters. The delegation is in Bucharest to attend the '2026 Rule of Law' Forum. The discussions focused on the inclusion of constitutional review in the Venice Commission's Rule of Law Checklist.

In her opening remarks, President Elena-Simina Tanasescu underscored that, throughout its existence, the Constitutional Court of Romania had been active in the area of the rule of law, maintaining consistently good cooperation and constructive dialogue with the Venice Commission, the quoted source said.

The Venice Commission President, in her turn, said that the updated Rule of Law Checklist had been translated into Romanian and that the intention was to translate it into all the languages of the Council of Europe's member states, the same source mentioned.

She explained that the translation was not merely a matter of courtesy, but a signal that the document should be accessible and understandable not only to experts, but to everyone, because the rule of law and the observance of this principle affect citizens' everyday lives.

'When we talk about the rule of law, we tend to think that it is the exclusive domain of lawyers, but ultimately, we are talking about the backbone of our democracies. We are talking about something that should form part of the common culture of our peoples. (...) The idea behind this update is - quite simply - that the context in which we operate is changing and we are facing new challenges. (...) Democratic institutions are always affected when the independence of the justice system is weakened. (...) Constitutional courts are the first courts to apply and implement European values. They are on the front line and are therefore an essential pillar of national democracy and of the European constitutional heritage that we share,' the President of the Venice Commission said, as quoted in the release.

According to the CCR, the discussions highlighted that the updated Rule of Law Checklist is intended to be an accessible instrument adapted to current challenges, one example being 'new technologies, which are a form of power.'

The Constitutional Court of Romania was represented at the meeting by Elena-Simina Tanasescu, President of the Constitutional Court of Romania and President of the Association of Francophone Constitutional Courts, judges Laura-Iuliana Scantei, a full member of the Venice Commission, Judges Asztalos Csaba Ferenc, Mihai Busuioc and Dacian Cosmin Dragos, as well as Benke Karoly, First Assistant-Magistrate, and Cristina Titiresca, Assistant-Magistrate and Director of the President's Office.

The Venice Commission delegation was led by President Marta Cartabia and included Vice-President Eirik Holmoyvik, Iain Cameron, a member of the Enlarged Bureau, Simona Granata-Menghini, Director and Secretary of the Venice Commission, and Tone Sorfonn, legal adviser in the Secretariat of the Venice Commission. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Mihai Stoica; EN - writing by: Rodica State)