UPDATE/CCR says 2019 state budget law is constitutional

The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) rejected on Wednesday the notification of President Klaus Iohannis regarding the state budget Law on 2019, establishing that the normative act is constitutional, officials of the CCR told AGERPRES. The quoted source mentioned that the decision was unanimous. On 22 February, the head of state filed with the CCR an constitutionality challenge regarding the state budget Law on 2019. In the document sent to the CCR, the President showed, among others, that the Budget Law was adopted with the violation of the role and duties of the Fiscal Council, which was to issue an opinion regarding all the amendments agreed during the parliamentary debates. Klaus Iohannis said that the the Fiscal Council's duty to issue an opinion regarding the conformity declaration signed by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Finance wasn't observed either. He also invoked the adoption of this law with the breech of the principles and regulations regarding the fiscal-budget responsibility. According to President Iohannis, in the legislative journey of the State Budget Law on 2019 there is no declaration of responsibility of the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, as the legislation stipulates. The President mentioned that the normative act was adopted with the violation of the provisions in the Fundamental Law, according to which "as a result of the accession, the provisions of the constituent treaties of the European Union, as well as the other mandatory community regulations shall take precedence over the opposite provisions of the national laws, in compliance with the provisions of the accession act.." The head of state also argued that the report on the 2019 macroeconomic situation and its projection for 2020-2022 was lodged by the Government according to its legal obligation, but it is based on a situation that ignores the developments at the level of global and European economy. AGERPRES (RO - author: Mihai Stoica, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Cristina Zaharia)