Romania’s Constitutional Court upholds controversial integrity law amendment
The Constitutional Court (CCR) ruled on Monday, August 17, that the modified law governing the National Integrity Agency (ANI) is partially constitutional, despite amendments that would apply retroactively, contrary to all legislative principles and the Romanian Constitution itself.
The law was at the center of a major debate last month, and its form was changed dramatically through amendments authored by the Social Democratic Party, or PSD. The same ANI law is a milestone in the European Commission-backed Recovery and Resilience Facility, or PNRR, with EUR 770 million in funding attached.
The most controversial amendment stipulates that elected officials in office lose their mandate within 30 days if they receive a final decision of incompatibility or conflict of interest, even if this decision predates the new law. This means that the law would apply retroactively.
Moreover, in this form, the bill would target Dominic Fritz, the leader of the center-right reformist party Union Save Romania or USR, one of the main opponents of PSD. In June, Romania's High Court of Cassation and Justice upheld a Timișoara Court of Appeal ruling that found Dominic Fritz in an administrative conflict of interest. Fritz, who has held the position of mayor of Timișoara since September 2020 and is currently serving his second term, was also banned from running for office for a period of three years from the end of his current term.
After being passed by Parliament, the modified ANI law had been contested before the Constitutional Court by more than two dozen senators from the National Liberal Party (PNL) and their allies in the Save Romania Union (USR), according to HotNews.
Before the ruling was issued, the constitutional judges requested that CCR president Simina Tănăsescu be removed from her capacity as reporting judge. She was replaced by another judge, Csaba Asztalos. The move came after a controversy surrounding Tănăsescu's meeting with interim prime minister Ilie Bolojan at the office of the president of the Senate. The discussion between Bolojan and Simina Tănăsescu took place on August 14 and sparked critical reactions both from within the justice system and from far-right opposition politicians. In addition, 16 presidents of Courts of Appeal and 50 presidents of Tribunals have requested explanations for the same meeting.
After the change, the PSD amendment was declared constitutional with the majority of votes of the 9 CCR judges. By a 5-3 majority vote, the CCR judges also declared constitutional the automatic termination of public office 30 days after the law enters into force for elected officials found definitively to be incompatible or in a conflict of interest.
On the other hand, the institution unanimously rejected amendments to the same law from the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party, which would have forced “the husband, wife or person who has relations similar to those between spouses” of high-ranking officials to submit asset declarations.
For the ANI law to move forward and be promulgated by president Nicușor Dan, it must be brought into line with the Court’s decision. Plenary sessions will need to be convened in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate to remove the amendment declared unconstitutional by the CCR.
“Instead of stopping a brutal abuse of power, the PSD majority in the Constitutional Court has just validated it. If the president promulgates the ANI law, my mandate as mayor will end in 30 days, as a retroactive sanction for things that happened before the law entered into force. The need of the privileged mafia to get rid of me makes them act so desperately that they are going as far as dismantling the foundations of democracy,” Fritz said.
He also pointed to Article 15 of the Constitution, which states that “the law shall apply only for the future.” “From now on, any parliamentary majority can invent punishments for the past, tailored in the name of a political opponent, and the politically controlled Constitutional Court will endorse them,” he added.
(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)
