Constitutional Court to discuss today the president’s notification on the law for Romania’s territorial structure

The Constitutional Court is set to discuss today the notification by president Klaus Iohannis on the changes to law 2/1968 regarding the administrative structure of Romania’s territory.

Iohannis had notified the CCR about this law on July 30, claiming that the way it was adopted and its content were in breach of several constitutional articles.

The president sees major legal differences and a significantly different configuration between the forms adopted by the two Parliamentary chambers.

His notification focuses on the provision claiming that “any change to the territorial limits of counties, cities, communes and villages that has the purpose or the effect of changing the share of national minority citizens in the administrative-territorial unit, as well as their rights and freedoms, is forbidden.” He claims that this article was introduced in the decisional chamber – the Senate – but was never discussed in the Chamber of Deputies and was not in the initial form of the law.

“Such a substantial change that introduces a ban on changes to territorial limits of administrative-territorial units for the lawmaker that would determine a change in the share of national minority citizens has nothing to do with aspects relating to updating the names of these units nor with the update of the provisions of law 2/1968 regarding Romania’s territorial structure,” says Iohannis, arguing that the provision exceeds the law’s purview and is in contradiction with the legislative technique norms referring to the uniqueness of regulation.

The president also criticised the provisions changing the legal definition of a city or a municipality, claiming the terms used in the law are unclear.

For these reasons, the president is asking the CCR to rule that the changes brought to the law for Romania’s territorial structure are unconstitutional.