The personal bankruptcy law no longer came into force on October 31 as initially decided by Parliament because President Klaus Iohannis asked the Legislative to re-examine the law through which this date was set as the deadline, the law not being enforceable in the absence of a proper functional framework.
The Government had asked for an extension to December 31, but Parliament set October 31 as the date.
The President is opposing the coming into force of the law two months earlier than the Government had established through emergency ordinance no.61/2015, namely on October 31, believing that the time at hand is not sufficient for all institutions and authorities involved in the enforcement of the law to carry out their activities. On the one hand, according to Iohannis, the deadline does not offer time for the constitutional procedure of adopting, promulgating and publishing a law, the law going too fast through Parliament considering the moment it is supposed to come into force, and does not offer sufficient time to prepare for its coming into force.
“The coming into force of a law should be set so as to allow all the public administrations/organisations to exercise their constitutional and legal powers in relation with the adoption, promulgation and publication of laws as well as to the coming into force of laws. The moving forward the coming into force of Law 151/2015, even if by only two months, can affect the process of securing concrete measures for the allocation of human and budgetary resources required for the organisation and operation of the boards provided for under Law no 151/2015 as well as the related courts,” reads the re-examination request submitted by Iohannis to Senate Speaker Calin Popescu-Tariceanu.
The President also argues that “in the absence of an adequate operational and organisational framework,” the coming into force on October 31 of Law 151/2015 can make inapplicable both the administrative insolvency procedure of debt reimbursement plan and the simplified insolvency procedure.
The Lower Chamber passed the law on October 4.
Another criticism levied against the decision to move forward the deadline is that the law has an impact on the judiciary too, requiring the significant hiking of court personnel.
“This is a complex process that usually follows a timetable; moving the deadline forward can impact the enforcement of the law. In this sense, we consider that the Superior Magistracy Council should be consulted when analysing the decision on the coming into force of Law no.151/2015,” reads the re-examination request.
According to the text of this law, indebted Romanians will be able to file for personal bankruptcy. They will benefit from two procedures: an administrative one, which entails that they can show up before an insolvency commission with a plan to roll their debts over a period of 5 years, and a liquidation procedure before court.
