Romanian Pres Says Chamber Speaker Blocked CC Decision Publishing

The presidency mentions, "given the requests for clarification coming from the press," that it makes statements regarding the situation of the case files of former or current ministers Miron Mitrea, Adrian Nastase, Victor Babiuc, Zsolt Nagy, Codruţ Seres, Tudor Chiuariu, Paul Pacuraru and Decebal Traian Remes, for which the head of state was ask to approve the initiation of criminal investigation by the National Anticorruption Department and the General Prosecutors’ Office within the High Court of Justice.

"Decision nr. 1,133 of the Constitutional Court on November 27, 2007, on the unconstitutionality of Government Emergency Ordinance nr 115/ 1999 amending the law on minister responsibility was communicated to president Traian Basescu and the president of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, Bogdan Olteanu, on December 4, 2007, and it was to be published in the Official Gazette in order to become effective. However, this decision was kept from publishing at the request of Chamber Speaker Bogdan Olteanu, without any sort of reason," said the Presidential Administration.

According to the press release, the fact that Olteanu stopped the publishing of the Decision, "surfaced in repeated talks held in the past two days between representatives of the Presidential Administration and the director of the Official Gazette."

"Stopping the publishing of the Constitutional Court Decision in the Official Gazette keeps the president of Romania from exercising his constitutional prerogatives, in making a decision regarding the situation of the abovementioned case files," said the press release issued by the Presidency.

Chamber Speaker Bogdan Olteanu said that the director of the Official Gazette told him that Basescu is pressuring for the publication “above all else” of the Decision and that he asked the Official Gazette chief to observe the law.

 

"I guarantee that the law is upheld in the Chamber of Deputies. As opposed to the president of Romania, mister Traian Basescu, I do not interfere with the authorities of the state in order o benefit from preferential service. I have talked to the director of the Official Gazette, who told me about the pressures from the head of state to publish the Decision of the Constitutional Court above all other Decisions. I asked him to observe the law," Olteanu said in a statement sent to MEDIAFAX.