PRESS RELEASE, 28 September 2022

I. At the hearing on 28 September 2022, the Constitutional Court, in the context of a priori constitutionality review, unanimously upheld the objection of unconstitutionality made by the President of Romania and found that the Law regarding the establishment of certain measures in order to finalize the administrative proceedings for the settlement of requests on the docket of county commissions, and of the municipality of Bucharest, for the application of Law no. 9/1998 regarding the granting of compensation to Romanian citizens for their property taken over by the Bulgarian state following the application of the Treaty between Romania and Bulgaria, signed in Craiova on 7 September 1940 and of Law no. 290/2003 regarding the granting of compensation to Romanian citizens for their property, seized, retained or remaining in Bessarabia, Northern Bucovina and the Herta region, as a result of the state of war and the application of the Peace Treaty between Romania and the Allied Powers, signed in Paris on 10 February 1947, and for the amendment of certain normative acts, is unconstitutional in its entirety.

In essence, the Court found that, in the parliamentary legislative procedure, the Chamber of Deputies introduced, as the decision-making Chamber, two texts amending two normative acts that are outside the regulatory scope of the adopted law, without any logical connection existing legal between the three normative acts. Through this intervention, they violated both the principle of bicameralism, since the Chamber of reflection – the Senate, in this case, did not have the opportunity to express its will regarding the normative texts introduced by the Chamber of Deputies, and the principle of legality and legal security, since they did not observe the principle of regulatory uniqueness, according to which a law must target homogeneous social relations, must have a single purpose and a single regulatory area, or areas in direct connection with it, otherwise the unity and coherence of the normative act will be affected.

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The decision is final and generally binding.

The arguments set out in the grounds for the decision of the Constitutional Court will be set out in the decision, which will be published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I

II. At the same hearing, the Constitutional Court postponed the following cases:

– for 5 October 2022, the objection of unconstitutionality of the Law approving the Emergency Government Ordinance no. 10/2022 amending and supplementing the Law no. 346/2004 on the stimulation of the establishment and development of small and medium-sized enterprises, objection made by the President of Romania;

– for 12 October 2022,

1. The referral of unconstitutionality of the Parliament Decision no. 8/2022 for the establishment of the permanent joint Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in the area of national security, objection made by the leader of the parliamentary group of independent deputies of the Right;

2. The objection of unconstitutionality of the Law amending and supplementing the National Education Law no. 1/2011, objection made by the President of Romania.

The External Relations, Press and Protocol Department of the Constitutional Court of Romania