Unanimous go-ahead from the Council of Ministers to the reform of the CSM and to the provision that puts an end to the so-called "revolving doors", i.e. the practice that allows magistrates to return to doing their job after having held elected offices or government positions.
Draghi's words
"It was a very rich discussion and also very shared thanks also to the numerous interactions with the parties and with Minister Cartabia and Undersecretary Garofoli", Prime Minister Mario Draghi said at the press conference, adding that: "This discussion has led to sharing the structure of the provision, to the delimitation of the areas where different views and the commitment with group leaders to give priority to the reform in Parliament in good time for the election of the next Superior Judiciary Council”, scheduled for July.
During the Council of Ministers, explained the Premier, “there was this awareness of the need for full involvement of political forces. So no attempts to enforce trust. It is a measure of such scope that it requires this opening”. Draghi then underlined that there was a commitment "of all ministers to support this reform with their own parties".
Cartabia: "Inescapable reform"
“The reform of the judicial system and of the CSM was unavoidable for the July deadline of the Council now in office, but also to accompany the judiciary in a process of recovering full trust and credibility", said the Minister of Justice, Marta Cartabia.
In Parliament, he added, “there is unanimity of views on the objective of the reform of stem cases such as that of Palamara. There was also absolute agreement on the nodes on which to intervene, such as the revolving doors, ie the transition of the magistrate to political office. The one on which differences remain is on the gradation of the measures”.
The minister recalled that “two major enabling laws were approved last summer to reform the criminal and civil systems. We are working on the legislative decrees: we have made a commitment with Europe to complete them by the end of the year and I am confident that we can arrive even earlier, especially on the penalty. We are working hard."
The details of the reform
Based on the provisions, the ordinary, administrative, accounting and military magistrates who will cover elective offices, at the end of their mandate, they will not be able to return to carrying out any judicial function and will be "placed in a non-permanent position at the ministry to which they belong or, for administrative and accounting magistrates, at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, or are destined to carry out of activities that are not directly judicial, neither judging nor prosecutorial".
Those who did instead top positions in ministries or government positions non-elective (heads of cabinet, general secretaries at ministries or heads of department), at the end of these experiences they will not be able to carry out judicial functions for three years. Their destination will be identified by the respective self-government bodies. The same discipline will apply to magistrates who have run for politics but have not been elected.
"For the technical assignments”, Minister Cartabia explained, "the bond is valid if the assignment lasts at least one year".
Another fundamental point of the reform concerns the choices of the magistrates who make up the Csm. The members will once again be 30, of which 3 by right (President of the Republic, the first President and the Attorney General of the Cassation), 20 professional and 10 laymen.
The election will take place through a mixed electoral system, based on binominal constituencies, which will each elect two members of the CSM. There will also be a proportional distribution of 5 seats nationwide, there will be no lists, but individual candidates. There will also be a draw which will serve to ensure that the minimum required of 6 candidates is reached in each binomial constituency and to rebalance the candidacies of the less represented gender.
Finally, the reform introduces the vote of the lawyers in the judiciary councils on the evaluations of the professionalism of the magistrates but only in one case: when the Council of the Order has made a formal report of incorrect behavior by the magistrate who has to be evaluated. In these cases the vote of the lawyers present in the Judicial Councils will be unitary.
