The Revision of the Romanian Constitution

The final draft of a revised Romanian Constitution will be submitted to the Venice Commission next spring. Initially set for the month of September, the moment has been postponed for objective reasons. At least this is how Romanian authorities explain the

Corina Cristea, 30.09.2013, 15:10

The Venice Commission should have presented the Romanian authorities with their viewpoint on the final draft of a revised Romanian constitution this October. At least this is the deadline agreed on this summer when the Venice Commission’s representatives came to Bucharest and the Romanian authorities asked for more time to work on it, until late September.

Nevertheless, the final draft will be sent to the Venice Commission only next spring, according to one of the co-presidents of the ruling Social Liberal Union, the Liberal Crin Antonescu. He pointed out however that the revision of the constitution continues to be a priority of the Social Liberal Union, in spite of a series of doubts cast by the opposition.

Crin Antonescu: “The revision of the constitution continues to be a priority for the Social Liberal Union. Once again, I want to express my strong disapproval of the hypocrisy showed by President Basescu and his supporters, who accused the Social Liberal Union of having broken their promise to revise the Constitution. We talked about the Constitution revision during the election campaign and we started working on it from the first day since we secured a parliamentary majority. It continues to be a priority for us, but, for practical reasons, it has been postponed for next year.”

The main reason for the delay is the Constitutional Court’s decision according to which a referendum on the new fundamental law can be organized only a year after changing the electoral threshold in Parliament. According to the National Liberal Party, a referendum on the revision of the Constitution could be held at the same time with the first round of the presidential elections, in November 2014.

The Liberal MP Alina Gheorgiu has more details: “I’m urging the Constitutional Court to analyze, on October 23, the two articles contested by the Liberal Democratic Party, to dismiss their objections as ungrounded and to send the bill for promulgation to the President as soon as possible. In my opinion the President, although he does not back the bill, will have no choice but submit it to Parliament for approval.”

According to the Social Democrat PM Victor Ponta, the project to be carried out by the Commission for the revision of Romania’s constitution provides for a badly needed reform of the political and constitutional system. After Bucharest receives all opinions on the final draft law from its international partners, a referendum on the revision of Romania’s Constitution will be held.