The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) on Thursday overruled as unjustifiable the Ombudsman’s appeal against the controversial emergency ordinance no. 13 that prompted massive street protests since February 1st.

Hoever, the CCR ruled only over the ordinance’s admissibility not in substance.

The CCR president, Valer Dorneanu (former Social Democrat member) argued that according to its judgment, the Court relied on the truth that “the EO 13 does not exist anymore”.

The EO 13 amending the criminal codes has been repealed by the Grindeanu Government through another emergency ordinance no.14.

The hearing prosecutor argued during the CCR sitting that the court “must rule now” over that matter and to pronounce over the ordinance in substance, even if it has been repealed, for it’s possible that the EO no 14 (repealing the EO NO 13) to be vetoed in Parliament and thus the EO no 13 to be enforced, and the courts will have to consider it even if it is eventually declared unconstitutional.

On the other hand, the CCR president Valer Dorneanu argued that the issues under the EO 13 related to amending some articles in the criminal code to be in compliance with the CCR decision must be solved between the Executive and the Parliament, which must loyally cooperate. “It’s not our business to establish now or some other time what way they should choose,” Dorneanu said.</s>A question that often surfaces when the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) is about to rule on issues of major importance is: what influence can the Court’s configuration generally have on this decision?

The Constitutional Court consists of nine judges, and the decisions are taken with a majority of at least five votes. Countless times, especially in sensitive situations in which CCR had to arbiter conflicts between branches of government or had sensitive dossiers on its table, accusations were levied that the judges’ votes allegedly reflected the political camp that promoted them at the CCR.

No political party or political force holds the majority of votes needed, according to a News.ro analysis. PSD has three judges, including the CCR President, PNL has two judges, UDMR has one judge, President Klaus Iohannis has one judge too, while two Court judges were appointed during ex-President Traian Basescu’s term.

CCR judges have not ruled on legal conflicts of a constitutional nature between state institutions recently, such conflicts being rather subjected to interpretation from the angle of legislation and not of the law itself.

Social Democrats managed to appoint no fewer than three judges at the Constitutional Court in recent years. Thus, CCR President Valer Dorneanu is a former Social Democrat MP, appointed by the Lower Chamber in 2013. Another judge appointed by the PSD majority is Maya Teodoroiu, voted by the Senate in 2015, after CCR judge Toni Grebla resigned following a corruption scandal. The third judge appointed with PSD backing is Marian Enache, former FSN, PDSR and PSD MP, appointed by the Lower Chamber in 2016.

Following the renewal of the Constitutional Court, in the summer of 2016, the Liberals lost one of the three judges they had appointed previously. Thus, the two remaining CCR judges backed by PNL are Stefan Minea, constitutional law professor at the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, appointed by PDL in 2010, and Mona Pivniceru, former Justice Minister in the USL Government, appointed in 2013.

UDMR has kept its seat at the Constitutional Court, a seat that Valentin-Zoltan Puskas vacated in 2016, after his mandate ended. In return for helping the Social Democrats appoint Marian Enache, the Magyars received PSD’s votes to appoint Attila Varga as CCR judge.

President Klaus Iohannis appointed his first Constitutional Court judge in the summer of 2016 – Livia Stanciu, former High Court of Cassation and Justice President.

Two of the current CCR judges were appointed during ex-President Traian Basescu’s term in office: Petre Lazaroiu, appointed in 2010, and Daniel Morar, former DNA Chief Prosecutor, appointed in 2013.
Also that day, the Constitutional Court rejected two pleas made by President Iohannis and the Supreme Council of the Magistracy (CSM) that claimed an institutional conflict between the Parliament, respectively the CSM on one hand, and the Government on the other, in a move that surprised the critics of the PSD-led cabinet and the protesters. The next day it rejected the final plea made by the Ombudsman on reasons of inadmissibility.