CCR reasoning says CVM reports, EC recommendations are not compulsory for the Romanian state

The European Commission Decision 2006/928/EC dated December 13, 2006 establishing the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), although it is mandatory for the state to which it is addressed, cannot have constitutional relevance, the Constitutional Court of Romania argues, ziare.com informs.

According to CCR judges, Decision 2006/928/EC “does not develop a constitutional norm, being circumscribed to the existing ones, nor does it fill a lacuna of the national fundamental law.”

The reasoning appears in the CCR decision on March 18, 2019, when the Court decided by majority of votes that the emergency ordinance on the operationalization of the Section for investigating magistrates (SIIJ) did not violate the fundamental law, thus rejecting the criticisms from PNL and USR regarding this normative act.

Judges Livia Stanciu, Daniel Morar and Mircea Stefan Minea made a separate opinion on this decision and argued that several provisions of the GEO are unconstitutional.

CCR shows that, given the lack of constitutional relevance of Decision 2006/928/EC, European bill binding for the Romanian state, the lesser constitutional relevance can be seen for the CVM reports.

The judges refer to an article in the Constitution – 148 paragraph (2), according to which only “the provisions of the constituent treaties of the European Union, as well as the other binding Community regulations, take precedence over the contrary provisions of the internal laws, in compliance with the provisions of the Accession Treaty.”

Thus, the CCR further shows that, although these are acts adopted on the basis of a decision, the European Commission reports contain recommendations, following the completed assessment, after presenting the conclusions, mentioning that “In order to remedy the situation, the following measures are recommended: [. ..] “.

“Or, by means of a recommendation, the institutions make known their views and suggest the directions for actions, without imposing any legal obligation on the recipients of the recommendation,” the CCR concludes.