Constitutional Court upholds PNL - PMP challenge to bill establishing Targu Mures Roman Catholic highschool

The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) upheld on Monday the challenge filed by the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the People's Movement Party (PMP) to the bill on the setting up of the Roman Catholic Theological High School in Targu Mures.

"The challenge was upheld and the law was declared unconstitutional," CCR President Valer Dorneanu said at the end of the meeting, explaining that Parliament cannot pass laws with an "individual" character.

Asked if Parliament can set up schools, Dorneanu replied: "Not only that it cannot set up schools, it can neither pass individual laws that produce effects for a single legal entity. This is a legal entity. This was not to regulate relations among parents, pupils, students. This was aimed at setting up a school."

According to the information published on the CCR website, the constitutional challenge to the setting up of the "Rákóczi Ferenc" Roman Catholic Theological Highschool II filed by 50 MPs of the PNL parliamentary group and 16 PMP lawmakers was on the Court's agenda this Monday.

The signatory lawmakers argue that the adoption of the Law on the Establishment of the "Rákóczi Ferenc" Roman Catholic Theological Highschool II is obviously in violation of the law, as the Targu Mures Local Council is competent for instructing the reorganization of any pre-university education facility under its jurisdiction, under observance of all guarantees provided by the law.

The PNL and PMP lawmakers show that this law is unconstitutional because it runs counter to the constitutional principle of the separation and the balance of state powers and also violates the constitutional principle of local autonomy and decentralization, as it regulates a particular situation which is actually under the exclusive competence of the public local administration authorities.

The signatories of the challenge further state that, by initiating this bill in Parliament, the legislator acts in lieu of a local public administration authority.

According to PNL and PMP, this normative act is in breach of the constitutional principle of the binding nature of the law and the principle of non-discrimination and equal rights of the citizens.

They also argue that the law violates the constitutional principle of non-retroactivity of civil law.