Premium
The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) established, on Tuesday, that the Parliament's decision to revoke of Renate Weber from the position of Ombudsman is unconstitutional, sources from CCR specified.
According to the cited sources, the constitutional judges unanimously admitted the challenge of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
Parliament decision 36/2021 for the revocation of the Ombudsman is unconstitutional, as the provisions on the principle of legality and the 5-year term of office have been violated, shows the referral submitted by PSD to the Constitutional Court.
According to the document, Parliament's decision violated the provisions of art. 1 para. (5) regarding the principle of legality and art. 58 para. (1) of the Constitution regarding the 5-year term of office of the Ombudsman.
"Contrary to the guarantees of independence of the Ombudsman underlined by the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court and provided by European standards, Parliament adopted the decision to revoke the Ombudsman in violation of the Constitution, the independence standards of the institution but also of the provisions in art. (2) of Law No. 35/1997 on the organization and functioning of the Ombudsman institution, republished, as explained in the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, using the revocation as a discretionary, political control mechanism, and not as a control of legality with regard to the Ombudsman," reads the referral.
The signatories of the referral specify that they do not contest the right of Parliament to evaluate the activity of the Ombudsman, but "the constitutionality of this evaluation, in the sense that the evaluation was not an objective one, did not respect the constitutional and legal framework and was not based on cumulative violations of the Constitution and the laws", Agerpres informs.
