Drones can be downed legally
The law on shooting down drones and the law on conducting military missions in peacetime are constitutional
Leyla Cheamil, 28.03.2025, 13:50
The Constitutional Court of Romania rejected, on Thursday, the complaints of the sovereigntist parties AUR, POT and S.O.S. Romania regarding two defense laws recently adopted by Parliament. The CCR decided that the law on the control of the use of airspace and the one regulating the peacetime conduct of military missions and operations on the territory of the Romanian state do not violate the fundamental law.
The first law allows drones that illegally enter the national airspace to be destroyed or neutralized, if the Romanian or NATO military forces are unable to control them. The second regulates the way in which military missions in Romania are carried out in peacetime, and one of the measures allows, for a limited period, the authority of some structures of the Romanian Army to be transferred to a commander of the allied military forces participating in these missions.
The complaints filed by the three parties mainly concerned the provisions relating to the transfer of authority. In essence, the Court held that the participation and taking of measures by the designated military authorities of the North Atlantic Alliance or by the structures of the forces of the allied and partner states for national air control should be analyzed in the context of the obligations assumed by Romania in its capacity as a NATO member state. Accession to the North Atlantic Alliance involves both the transfer of certain responsibilities and the joint exercise of certain powers with the component states – the Court says in a statement. According to the court, the regulation of a shared power between the structures of the institutions that are part of the national defense system and the structures of the forces of allied and partner states does not prejudice Romania’s sovereignty.
The Court also found that the transfer of authority does not mean that members of foreign military forces/structures who participate in military missions and operations on the territory of the Romanian state are assigned to a military position within the system of the Ministry of National Defense. Therefore, the duties, rights and freedoms of the military personnel, established in the Statute of Military Personnel or in other laws, in accordance with the Constitution, apply only to active military personnel, who are part of the military structures of the Ministry of National Defense, and not to foreign “designated forces/structures/military structures”, who participate, in an allied or coalition framework, in the conduct of military missions and operations on the territory of the Romanian state, in peacetime, under the Romanian law and the treaties to which Romania is a party, the constitutional judges added. (MI)
