Klaus Iohannis explains his rejection of new ministers: Proposals do not meet constitutional requirements

In two letters to PM Viorica Dancila today, president Klaus Iohannis explained his decision to reject the proposals for the Ministry of Transport and for the Ministry of Development. The main reason for the rejections was that the proposals did not meet the constitutional requirements, according to the president.

President Iohannis sent two letters to Prime Minister Viorica Dancila stating why he decided to reject Lia Olguta Vasilescu for the Transport Ministry and Ilan Laufer for the Development Ministry, as well as the two following nominations – Olguta Vasilescu for Development and Mircea Draghici for Transport.

“Following your address No. 5/6690 dated November 22, 2018, as well as the addresses 5/5864 and 5/5865, both of 30 November 2018, where you submitted the nomination for Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration of Mrs. Lia-Olguţa Vasilescu, and the appointment of Mr. Mircea-Gheorghe Draghici as Transport Minister, following the proposal to revoke/declare the job vacancy, seeing the incidence of the provisions of Art. 85 paragraph (2) as well as of Article 105 of the Constitution and taking into account the case law of the Constitutional Court, finding that in the submitted proposals there is no mention of the fulfillment of the conditions of legality and the documentation submitted does not result in the fulfillment of the conditions provided by art. Article 105 of the Constitution and Article 2 of Law No 90/2001 on the organization and functioning of the Government of Romania and Romania of the Ministries for the appointment as a member of the Government, inform you that the proposals for appointment as a member of the Government, submitted on 22 November 2018 and 30 November 2018 respectively, do not prove the fulfillment of the conditions of legality so that they can happen,” wrote President Iohannis in a letter.

In another letter to Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, the head of state gives his reasons for the rejection of Lia Olguta Vasilescu for Transport and Ilan Laufer for Development. He claims to have dismissed Vasilescu for Transport because she does not have the necessary expertise to manage this area, and Laufer for Development because he does not meet the legal requirements.

The head of state also wrote that on November 19, 2018, Prime Minister Dancila proposed the two names for the ministerial positions, after asking for the revocation of Paul Stanescu, respectively of Lucian Sova.

“In regards of the proposal to appoint Mr Harry-Ilan Laufer as Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Regional Development and Public Administration, we found that the documentation accompanying the submitted proposal does not fulfill the conditions provided by Article 105 of the Constitution and Art. 2 of the Law No. 90/2001 on the organization and functioning of the Romanian Government and of the ministries for appointment as a member of the Government. In regards of the proposal for the appointment of Ms. Lia-Olguta Vasilescu as the Minister of Transport, I appreciate that the nominee does not have the required expertise for the complex sector that is the Transportation. In accordance with the provisions of Article 85 paragraph (2) of the Constitution, and in the light of the case-law of the Constitutional Court, I decided to reject the nomination proposals for the respective positions,” wrote Iohannis in the letter.

On Jan. 3, Iohannis signed the decree to vacate the leading positions at the Ministries of Development and Transport, after in November Lucian Sova resigned from the Transport Ministry and Paul Stanescu resigned from the Development Ministry.

On January 4, the president announced that he would refuse proposals for the Ministries of Development and Transport, namely Lia Olguta Vasilescu and Mircea Draghici.

Later on, the government proposed that interim ministers Eugen Teodorovici and Rovana Plumb were proposed for these portfolios and President Iohannis signed the decrees.