President Iohannis submits notice to CCR of unconstitutionality on Law on Port Administration

President Klaus Iohannis sent to the Constitutional Court (CCR), on Friday, a notice of unconstitutionality on the Law approving the Emergency Ordinance of the Government regarding the administration of ports and waterways, the use of naval transport infrastructures belonging to the public domain, as well as the carrying out of transport activities naval in ports and on inland waterways, as well as for the completion of an article in the Competition Law, the Presidential Administration announced.

The law was re-examined by the Parliament at the request of the head of state. "Parliament changed the conditions regarding the selection of the members of the governing bodies, adopting a law with a different content compared to the initial form and, as a consequence, a new legislative solution not taken into account by the request for re-examination," Iohannis explained, in the notification sent to CCR, Agerpres informs.

The president requested re-examination of the normative act on the grounds that in some provisions unclear terminology is used regarding the fields of study and, considering the importance, role and attributions of the members of the management bodies of the port administrations, it is necessary to expressly mention them within the conditions of selection.

At the same time, through the request for re-examination, the president indicates the impact of the new conditions and the reduction of some requirements - including the removal of the condition that the professional experience of 5 years must be within the central or local public administration authorities or public institutions, as well as the condition that the respective professional skills to be proven by at least 5 years of experience, performing management, regulation or control duties in the naval field.

In the re-examination procedure, the Senate, as the first referred Chamber, admitted an amendment that replaced the condition that the members have professional competences proven by at least 5 years of experience in the administration or management of entities, legal entities that carry out sector-specific activities transport, logistics, transport infrastructure management with a condition of at least one year of experience in the respective fields.

Later, the Chamber of Deputies, as the decision-making Chamber, adopted the law in the form adopted by the Senate. "In other words, the Parliament further reduced the conditions and requirements for the selection of the members of the management bodies of the port administrations", it is highlighted in the referral to the CCR.

"Between the form of the law initially sent for promulgation and the one adopted following the resolution of the request for re-examination formulated by the President of Romania, there is a specific difference. This consists in replacing the phrase '5 years' with the phrase 'one year'. But this specific difference, beyond the evidence the fact that it does not represent any form of 'admission' of the request for re-examination, it cannot be considered a 'rejection' of it either, since the normative content (...) has been modified", added the president.

GEO no. 160/ 2020 has as its regulatory object the creation of the legal framework necessary for the application of Regulation (EU) 2017/ 352 of the European Parliament and of the Council of February 15, 2017 establishing a framework for the provision of port services and common rules for the financial transparency of ports.