The former National Anticorruption Agency (DNA) head Daniel Morar (in picture) was recently named as a judge on the Romanian Constitutional Court, with a nine-year mandate. He was proposed for this job and his nomination was signed-off by President Traian Basescu.

Morar will be replacing judge Aspazia Cojocaru, whose nine-year mandate is due to end on June 8 this year. Two other Constitutional Court judges will end their mandates this year, Ion Predescu and Acsinte Gaspar, and the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies nominated Mona Pivniceru and Valer Dorneanu to replace them.

By law, three months before the end of the mandate of a Constitutional Court judge, the Court will ask either the Parliament or the Presidency- depending on who made the original nomination of the judge - and ask for another nomination. A new judge needs to be appointed at least one month prior to the end of mandate of the existing one.

The 46-year old Daniel Morar headed the DNA between 2005 and 2012. He has a career of 20 years as prosecutor. President Basescu previously recommended Morar to Justice Minister Mona Pivniceru for the general prosecutor's job, but Pivniceru's answer was 'never'. Morar himself said he was not interested in taking part in a joke, thus criticizing the selection procedure.

editor@romania-insider.com