The Constitutional Court of Romania and the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic had a bilateral meeting on Tuesday, 28 March 2023, in which the main discussions concerned the powers of the two constitutional courts and the effects of their decisions.
The meeting was also attended, on behalf of the Constitutional Court of Romania, by Marian ENACHE, President, Mrs Livia-Doina STANCIU, Mr VARGA Attila, Mrs Elena-Simina TĂNĂSESCU, Mrs Mihaela CIOCHINĂ, Mr Dimitrie-Bogdan LICU, Judges, Mr BENKE Károly, First Assistant Magistrate and Mrs Cristina TITIRIȘCĂ, Assistant Magistrate, and on behalf of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, by Mr Ivan FIAČAN, President, Mr Ľuboš SZIGETI, Vice-President, Mr Ladislav DUDITŠ, Judge, and Mrs Andrea NAGYOVA, expert within the International Relations and Protocol Department.
The meeting started with the short presentation of the procedure for appointment of constitutional judges and the duties of each court.
President Marian Enache stated that the Romanian Constitutional Court is the only constitutional authority, built on the European model of constitutional review. From a statistical point of view, the majority of the Court’s work consists in the a priori and a posteriori constitutional review, with 544 and, respectively, 21.566 decisions being pronounced to date.
For his part, President Ivan Fiačan stated that most of the work of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic consists of citizens’ referrals, approximately 3.000 per year. It was pointed out that the complaint of unconstitutionality first presupposes that all domestic remedies against the contested judicial decision have been exhausted and, only after this requirement has been met, can a complaint be brought before the Constitutional Court.
Concluding the discussions, the President of the Romanian Constitutional Court considered that the discussion with the Slovak side was important and substantial. The prospect of revitalising the relations between the two Courts was also addressed, where the Slovak side proposed a bilateral meeting in Košice. A meeting was also proposed in Bucharest between Slovak and Romanian assistant-magistrates for an exchange of experience and professional information.
President Ivan Fiačan also invited the Romanian Constitutional Court to participate in Slovakia in the annual conference on constitutional justice on 20 September this year.
At the end of the meeting, the President of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, Mr Ivan FIAČAN, was invited to sign in the Book of Honour of the Romanian Constitutional Court.
