The legal committee in the Chamber of Deputies began a general debate on Monday on a draft law that amends the Criminal Code and regulates the abuse of official position and the threshold at which it is considered a crime. Several working options are on the table of the PSD, PNL UDMR coalition.

The PNL proposes two minimum salaries for the economy, equivalent to 6,000 lei, while the PSD and the Minister of Justice want the threshold for abuse of office to be 9,000 lei.

Minister of Justice Katalin Predoyu came on Monday to the parliament, to the PSD and PNL parliamentary groups, where he explained to the deputies why it is necessary to introduce a sum for crimes related to abuse and neglect of official duties. At the end of the meeting with the parliamentarians, Preda announced that he supports, as discussed in the Coalition, the threshold of 9,000 lei.

On the other hand, the leader of the PNL deputies, Gabriel Andronake, said that the liberals have another proposal. “After arguments about constitutionality, although, from our point of view, the group (of PNL deputies – no) is not needed, but the CCR obliges us, we are obliged to implement it. (…) The PNL group comes and proposes that this threshold should be two minimum wages for the economy. This is a proposal that we will discuss,” said Gabriel Andronash.

Last week, the Senate passed a draft amendment to the Criminal Code that sets a value threshold for abuse and neglect in the service. More precisely, if the damage is less than 250,000 lei, i.e. 50,000 euros, then there is no crime. This was provided for by Law No. 13, which brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets, only then the threshold was 200,000 lei.

The amendment, which introduces a threshold of 250,000 lei for abuse of office, was received by e-mail from the power senators after a meeting in the narrow circle of the Coalition: “We were given the amendments that needed to be adopted,” explained the president of the legal commission in the Senate, Christian Tagarlash, who amended the Criminal Code Amendment Bill, which was passed by the Senate on Wednesday.

The PNL senator explained that the amendment adopted by the Legal Commission was based on the Coalition’s decision from Sunday evening, which was communicated to him by email. According to HotNews.ro sources, Marcel Cholaku, Nicolae Chuke, Lucian Bode, Katalin Predoyu, Kelemen Hunor, Marian Neatsu and Robert Kazanchuk attended the Coalition meeting on Sunday evening.

Justice Minister Katalin Predoyu later announced that he had submitted an amendment to the bill passed by the Senate, proposing that the value threshold be 9,000 lei. Coalition leaders Marcel Čolaku and Nicolae Chuke wrote on Facebook that they support the Justice Minister’s proposal.