Anti-corruption prosecutors want income like their colleagues from the European Public Prosecutor's Office

The anti-corruption prosecutors are dissatisfied with the monthly salary of 5,000 euros and believe that they should receive an income equal to that of their DNA colleagues who are seconded to the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), i.e. 8,000 euros per month. That's why 43 prosecutors, including the head of department, Mihaela Moraru Iorga - the one investigating the Coldea case, and deputy chief prosecutor Silviu Paul Dumitriu sued the DNA requesting that their salaries be aligned with their colleagues delegated to the EPPO. The action was filed on May 15, 2024, at the Bucharest Court, file no. 15721/3/2024 and being registered at the Department of Labor Disputes and Labor Insurance, with the object "calculation of salary rights".

The 43 plaintiffs called to court, in addition to the DNA, the National Council for Combating Discrimination, the institution to which they first addressed, requesting to establish that they are discriminated against by lower pay compared to their colleagues delegated to the EPPO.

The European Public Prosecutor's Office investigates crimes against the EU budget involving more than euro10,000 in EU funds and cross-border value added tax (VAT) fraud cases involving more than euro10 million in damages, with 140 delegated prosecutors who they operate in their country of origin, of which 20 work in Romania, in Bucharest, Cluj Napoca, Iaşi and Timişoara. According to the law, prosecutors delegated to the EPPO work in full independence from their national authorities and are paid exclusively by the European Public Prosecutor's Office, their salaries being taxed and charged according to Romanian legislation.

The applicants claim that, while EPPO prosecutors have a monthly salary of around euro8,000, they collect on average around euro5,000 per month, even though they have the same employment conditions, the same powers, rights and facilities, and perform similar work on cases in which combating fraud in the European funds regime falls within the competence of the DNA. As a result, the 43 anti-corruption prosecutors request the Bucharest Court to compel DNA to pay them the salary differences starting from June 1, 2021 - the date of the establishment of the EPPO, to which to add penal interest and the inflation index.

Apart from Mihaela Iorga, the list of complainants also includes the Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the DNA, Silviu Paul Dumitriu, who coordinated the investigation in which the former Minister of Transport, Relu Fenechiu was sentenced to 5 years in prison in 2014, the files of Ioan Niculae , Viorel Hrebenciuc, Gheorghe Ştefan - called "Pinalti" - and Laurai Georgescu. Also among the disgruntled prosecutors is Marian Drăgulescu, who coordinates the investigations in the case of Iulian Dumitrescu, the former president of the Prahova County Council, whom he accuses of accepting bribes worth 3.2 million euros, the prosecutor Marian Tudor, who signed the ordinance ranking in the Revolution File, but even two EPPO delegated prosecutors, Narcis Lăzărescu and Cosmin Adrian Iordache, who want to be paid, retroactively, the salary differences for the period from June 1, 2021 until last year when they were delegated to the European Public Prosecutor's Office.

The case at the Bucharest Court is in preliminary proceedings and a first deadline for the start of the debates is to be set.