President Klaus Iohannis has filed a challenge with the Constitutional Court of Romania related to the law on approval of the GEO no. 33/2017, which stipulated that the President and the Vice-Presidents of the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) will be appointed by the joint plenum of the two Chambers, by voting of the majority of the Senators and Deputies who are present.
“Considering that the law adopted by Parliament includes a series of new regulations in addition to the ones in the approved ordinance, under a procedure that contravenes the principle of bicameralism, I believe that the adoption of this law breaks the provisions of article 75, article 115, paragraph (4) and article 148 paragraphs (2) and (4) of the Constitution. (…) By this law in relation to which constitutionality the President notified the Constitutional Court, the supervision of the ANCOM, which is mentioned both in the European regulation and the relevant constitutional provisions, turned into a real tutelage control, where the legislative power can dismiss the ANCOM leadership without observing the exigencies established by the EC Directive 2009/140, which triggers the violation of the article 148 paragraphs (2) and (4) of the Constitution, through the violation of the express provisions of the EC Directive 2009/140. Therefore, the Constitutional Court can address a preliminary question to the European Union Court of Justice to establish to which extent the procedures of designating/removing the ANCOM leadership and the modalities of supervision exclusively by the Parliament comply with the right of the European Union,” shows a release on Monday remitted by the Presidential Administration.
