Constitutional Court to establish the constitutionality of new bill

Romanian president Klaus Iohannis challenges at the Constitutional Court new bill on the elimination of 102 taxes passed by Parliament in October.

Leyla Cheamil, 16.11.2016, 13:31

Parliament in Bucharest quickly voted last
month a bill to eliminate over 100 non-fiscal duties, but the bill is yet to be
signed into law by president Klaus Iohannis. Initiated by the Social Democratic
Party, the bill stipulates the elimination, beginning January 1st
2017, of the environment stamp duty for vehicles, the tax for issuing
provisional passports, the radio and TV licence fee, and the fee for issuing
fiscal records, among others.

President Iohannis on Tuesday challenged the
bill at the Constitutional Court, arguing that it fails to comply with several
Constitutional provisions. In a note sent to the Court’s magistrates, Iohannis
says the bill departs from constitutional norms related to the principle of the
separation of powers and legality, the government’s relationship with
Parliament and the role of the executive. The president also says that many
citizens wish to have some duties removed but this has to be done coherently,
effectively and responsibly. Iohannis says that because the bill was drafted in
haste, it may contain some unconstitutional aspects:

For reasons I’m personally not aware of, Parliament moved very quickly,
which resulted in a failure to comply with certain procedural requirements,
perhaps intentionally. I believe that some issues related to both procedure and
fundamental issues have not been well clarified by Parliament so I have
requested that the bill’s constitutionality be verified. Of course, if the
Court rules that some parts of the bill have to be reformulated, Parliament may
do this, and if the bill is sent back to me to signed into law I will see at
the time whether I will endorse it or send it back to Parliament for
completion.

President Iohannis has cautioned that by
implementing this law Romania runs the risk of exceeding the 3% target deficit
agreed upon with international bodies. An exclusively political decision,
this is how the initiator of the law, Social Democratic leader Liviu Dragnea
has described president Iohannis’ decision to challenge the constitutionality
of the law. For their part, the Liberals agree with most of the provisions of
the bill but argue that the environment stamp duty and the radio and TV licence
fee need to be maintained. The elimination of the latter has sparked heated
debates of late. Its supporters say that doing away with the fee and funding
the public broadcasting services exclusively from the budget could lead to
their political subordination.

The Court has set December 14th as
the date for giving the verdict on the president’s challenge.