Law for the establishment of the High School in Târgu Mureş, unconstitutional. Will it lead to a fresh row Bucharest-Budapest?

The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) has admitted on Monday the PNL and PMP notification regarding the draft law on the establishment of the Roman Catholic Theological High School in Târgu Mureş.

“The Parliament cannot give individual laws that produce effects for a single legal person, and in this case it is a legal person. It is not a regulation on the relations between parents, pupils, students, a school was established,” CCR President, Valer Dorneanu, said after the meeting.

PMP and PNL challenged to the CCR, on February 13, the law on the establishment of the Rákóczi Ferenc Roman Catholic High School in Târgu-Mureş.

The notification to the Constitutional Court reads that the law is unconstitutional because it violates the principle of separation in the state and the constitutional principle of local autonomy and decentralization because it regulates a particular situation under the exclusive competence of the local public administration authorities.

“By adopting the Law for the establishment of the Roman Catholic Theological High School Rákóczi Ferenc, an unconstitutional precedent is created. Whenever a local public authority rejects the decision for reasons of opportunity or legality or adopts a decision, according to its legal and decision-making powers, any unsatisfied MP will initiate a draft law to regulate the situation and will invoke, for the adoption of a law, the regulation on the establishment of the Roman Catholic Theological High School II Rákóczi Ferenc. The same will be the case in the situation of the annulment of a local public administration authority decision by the administrative contentious court,” the notification read, adding that, according to the constitution, “the citizens are equal before the law and the public authorities, without privileges and without discrimination.”

The Senate, as the decision-making body, adopted on February 7 the legislative proposal for the establishment of the Romano-Catholic Theological High School in Targu Mures as a pre-university education unit with teaching in Hungarian, a draft formerly adopted by the Chamber of Deputies.

The UDMR legislative proposal received 71 votes for, 4 abstentions and 20 against. In December 2017 the deputies adopted with 172 votes “for”, 62 “against” and 8 abstainers the UDMR draft for the establishment of the Theological High School.

The legislative proposal is to regulate the establishment of the Romano-Catholic Theological High School as a pre-university education unit with Hungarian language teaching, part of the national education system, through the partial division of the “Bolyai Farkas” High School in Targu Mures. The activity of the “Bolyai Farkas” High School was suspended last year, which stirred a diplomatic row between Budapest and Bucharest.

2,500 people took to the street in early September to protest against the legal situation of the school. The court ruled on June that the school couldn’t legally function anymore for it lacked the Education Ministry’s positive approvals.

Consequently, Hungary withdrew the support for Romania’s accession to the OECD, one of the main objectives of Bucharest’s foreign policy.

In June a court of law cancelled the setting up of the Catholic High School in Târgu Mureş. A DNA file was opened on this issue.