Official Journal of the European Union

Series C

C/2024/2001

18.3.2024

(Case C-131/23, (1) Unitatea Administrativ Teritorială Judeţul Braşov)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice - Acte éclairé - Decision 2006/928/EC - Mechanism for cooperation and verification of progress in Romania to address specific benchmarks in the areas of judicial reform and the fight against corruption - Legal nature and effects - Binding on Romania - Direct effect of the benchmarks - Obligation to combat corruption in general and high-level corruption in particular - Obligation to provide for dissuasive and effective criminal penalties - Limitation period for criminal liability - Decision of a constitutional court which has declared invalid a provision of national legislation governing the grounds for interrupting that period - Systemic risk of impunity - Principle that offences and penalties must be defined by law - Requirements of foreseeability and precision of criminal law - Principle of the retroactive application of the more lenient criminal law (lex mitior) - Principle of legal certainty - National standard of protection of fundamental rights - Obligation of the courts of a Member State to disapply decisions of the constitutional court and/or the supreme court of that Member State in the event that they are incompatible with EU law)

(C/2024/2001)

Language of the case: Romanian

Referring court

Parties in the main criminal proceedings

other parties: Parchetul de pe lângă Înalta Curte de Casaţie şi Justiţie — Direcţia Naţională Anticorupţie — Serviciul Teritorial Braşov and Unitatea Administrativ Teritorială Judeţul Braşov

Operative part of the order

Commission Decision 2006/928/EC of 13 December 2006 establishing a mechanism for cooperation and verification of progress in Romania to address specific benchmarks in the areas of judicial reform and the fight against corruption

must be interpreted as meaning that the courts of a Member State are not required to disapply the decisions of the constitutional court of that Member State declaring invalid the national legislative provision which governs the grounds for interrupting the limitation period in criminal matters as a result of a breach of the principle that offences and penalties must be defined by law, as protected under national law, as to its requirements relating to the foreseeability and precision of criminal law, even if, as a consequence of those decisions, a considerable number of criminal cases — including cases relating to offences of corruption — will be discontinued because of the expiry of the limitation period for criminal liability.

However, this must be interpreted as meaning that the courts of that Member State are required to disapply a national standard of protection relating to the principle of the retroactive application of the more lenient criminal law (lex mitior) which makes it possible, including in the context of appeals brought against final decisions, to call into question the interruption of the limitation period for criminal liability in such cases by procedural acts which took place before such a declaration of invalidity.

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ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/2001/oj

ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)