Romania’s Constitutional Court to examine government reform laws on September 24

The Constitutional Court (CCR) will rule on September 24 on challenges lodged against a package of government reform laws passed under a simplified parliamentary procedure, Radio Romania Actualitati reported. The objections were filed by the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) and by the High Court (ICCJ).

Prime minister Ilie Bolojan implied he would step down from his post unless the draft law on magistrates’ pensions gets promulgated or if the ruling coalition fails to agree in due time, namely by around mid-September, about cutting the employment in local administration by 10%.

AUR contested four draft laws endorsed by Parliament on September 8, arguing they were adopted without debate, consultation, or a democratic vote. In its statement, the party urged CCR judges to “reject these projects in their entirety and send a firm signal that Romanian democracy cannot be dismantled through legislative artifice.”

Separately, the ICCJ referred last week a fifth draft law concerning the retirement conditions for magistrates to the constitutional judges. The High Court argued that the legislation breaches constitutional provisions related to the rule of law and the circumstances in which the government may assume responsibility for draft laws.

According to the ICCJ, the measure contravenes 37 binding CCR decisions and multiple fundamental principles, including judicial independence, legal certainty, non-retroactivity, and equal treatment. The Court also criticised the absence of the mandatory opinion of the Superior Council of Magistracy on the final version of the law.

“The constitutional status of the judge, of the magistracy in general, is not a privilege, but an essential guarantee of the rule of law, of democracy, which cannot be disregarded,” the ICCJ stated.

The CCR will deliberate both AUR’s objections and the High Court’s referral during its session on September 24.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)