The unit investigating offences committed by magistrates issued only 2 indictments in 2025, fewer than in 2024

The European Commission shows a judicial system with rising staffing overall, but “no progress” on the recommendation on investigating corruption within the judiciary.

The ROptimizaRE editorial team · 6 min read · updated 15 October 2026

In short

At the end of 2025, the filling rate of judge posts rose to 85% nationally (from 83% at the start of 2025), and of prosecutor posts to 76% (from 74%)^[1]
The special unit investigating offences committed by magistrates had, at the end of 2024, only 4 of 14 prosecutor posts filled at central level, compared with 8 of 14 at the end of 2022^[2]
The prosecutors seconded to this unit issued only 2 indictments in 2025, against 6 in 2024, and in 2026 the European Commission found “no further progress” on the recommendation on investigating corruption in the judiciary^[1]
In 2024, 307 defendants escaped prosecution in corruption cases because of the statute of limitations, compared with 364 in 2023 and only 129 in 2022, before a series of High Court decisions^[2]

Staffing rises, but less where it matters

The most recent edition of the European Commission's Rule of Law report, published on 17 July 2026, notes continued progress overall: at the end of 2025 the filling rate of judge posts reached 85% nationally, compared with 83% at the start of the same year; for prosecutors the percentage rose to 76%, from 74%^[1].

Filling rate, judge posts, end of 2025

85%

Year 2025 · source^[1]

83% at the start of the same year.

Filling rate, prosecutor posts, end of 2025

76%

Year 2025 · source^[1]

74% at the start of the same year.

Recruitment competitions for magistrates and court clerks were suspended in 2025 and 2026 because of nationwide budget restrictions, with exceptions approved only from April 2026 for the judicial sector. Even so, a CSM questionnaire sent to all sitting judges in December 2025 shows that the heavy workload and the insufficient number of judges and clerks continue to directly affect their work, as confirmed by the magistrates' associations^[1].

The unit investigating magistrates: “no further progress”

The special structure set up in March 2022 to investigate offences committed by magistrates remains understaffed. At the end of 2024 it had, at central level, only 4 of the 14 prosecutor posts filled, compared with 8 of 14 at the end of 2022. At local level the situation was somewhat better, but still fluctuating: 37 of 45 posts filled at the end of 2024, compared with 34 of 45 in 2023 and 42 of 45 in 2022^[2].

Posts filled at the unit investigating offences in the judiciary^[2]

Level	2022	2023	2024
Central (out of 14 posts)	8	—	4
Local (out of 45 posts)	42	34	37

The concrete result got worse, not better: the prosecutors seconded at central level (ICCJ) issued only 2 indictments in the whole of 2025, against 6 in 2024, and those seconded to the courts of appeal issued none. The 2026 report states explicitly “no further progress” on the Commission's recommendation on effectively investigating corruption offences in the judiciary, a harsher assessment than in the 2023–2025 editions, which had noted at least “some progress”^[1].

The consequence: hundreds of corruption cases, time-barred

Defendants whose prosecution ended because of the statute of limitations, 2024

307

Year 2024 · source^[2]

364 in 2023; only 129 in 2022, before the decisions that extended the effect of limitation periods.

The DNA (National Anticorruption Directorate), the structure that investigates high-level corruption, remains relatively well staffed. The volume of cases on its docket rose again in 2025, however, to 5,556 (compared with 5,443 in 2024), a reversal of the fall recorded the year before, with 2,599 new cases registered in 2025, a level similar to 2023 and 2024. Of the 792 people sent to trial in 2025, 539 were by indictment and 253 by a guilty-plea agreement^[1].

What this article does not show

The European Commission's Rule of Law report is a qualitative assessment, based on data supplied by Romanian institutions and on country visits, not a set of statistical data directly comparable across all EU states. For the average time to resolve cases and direct quantitative comparisons with other member states, the standard source would be the Commission's European Justice Scoreboard, but that report publishes figures almost exclusively as charts, without extractable data tables for each country, which is why it could not be used as a source here. Also, the 2026 report does not repeat the breakdown by level (central/local) of the posts filled at the unit investigating magistrates; the figures in the table above remain the most recent available, from the 2025 edition.

Sources

Primary official sources; where we use the press (only when the official document is not public) we mark it. The links lead to the original document or to the report cited (titles are translated; the documents themselves are in Romanian unless stated).

[1]
European Commission — 2026 Rule of Law Report — Country Chapter Romania (the most recent edition, published 17 July 2026; it updates the filling of judge/prosecutor posts and the assessment of the special unit investigating offences in the judiciary compared with the 2025 edition)
Published 17 July 2026 · Accessed 15 October 2026 · the original document(opens in a new tab)
[2]
European Commission — 2025 Rule of Law Report — Country Chapter Romania (section “Quality”, on the filling of judge/prosecutor posts, and the section on the special unit investigating offences in the judiciary)
Published 1 July 2025 · Accessed 15 October 2026 · the original document(opens in a new tab)

This is a translation of the Romanian article, which prevails. Source titles are translated for convenience; the documents themselves are in Romanian unless stated.