Romania's justice minister proposed a significant overhaul of the judicial system on August 23 that includes limiting the role of the president in naming key officials.
President Klaus Iohannis reacted angrily to the proposals, saying they would set the country's anticorruption efforts back by a decade.
Romania is seen as one of the EU's most corrupt states and Brussels keeps its justice system under special monitoring.
Justice Minister Tudorel Toader recommended having the president no longer appoint the prosecutor-general and the chief anticorruption prosecutor, a main function of Romania's presidency.
Instead, the Supreme Council of Magistrates, a professional body, would appoint the two prosecutors.
In addition, magistrates under investigation for wrongdoing would have their actions reviewed by the Prosecutor-General's Office rather than an anticorruption agency.
Iohannis said the proposals amounted to "an attack on the rule of law, on the independence and proper functioning of the justice system."
Anticorruption group Platform Romania 100 said the proposals put the independence of the justice system "in grave danger."
