Financiarul

President Traian Basescu appreciated on Thursday that, by Romania’s Constitutional Court (CCR) takeover of the Presidency of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts, CCR institutional capacity and professionalism are recognized worldwide.

“This mission honors our Constitutional Court, and more so because it celebrates 18 years of existence in 2009. This meeting’s theme and the exceptional participation of the distinguished personalities in the field establish a highly scientific level framework for the debates”, said the head of the Romanian state, present in the opening session of the Preparatory meeting of the Circle of Presidents of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts, organized Thursday and Friday, in Bucharest.

According to President Basescu, it is essential for a country’s legislation to agree with its fundamental law and the constitutional courts should be independent in the fulfillment of their tasks from all public authorities. “CCR, which is not part of the three state power system, meets this condition.

Clarification of this aspect is needed in the context in which the constitutional jurisdictions are called to solve sensitive issues, with a strong impact upon some authorities or public institutions”, said the President.

Traian Basescu appreciated that the dialogue between the constitutional jurisdictions is part of the universal legal culture and represents a mandatory exchange of experience, also playing a role in the mutual knowledge of these systems.

“Finding some common solutions to common issues the states are confronted with is defining for an increasingly globalized world. Through this action the legal standards are created, as well as universal constitutional values, with the opportunity to compare the arguing method with the ones used by other countries, but also to study prior to the ruling the way in which resembling issues were solved by other instances, so that the constitutional courts can avoid arbitrary ruling and can act so that the used arguing method becomes predictable”, he stressed.

Basescu underlined that in the context of globalization the experience exchange is very important, allowing the adoption of the most efficient models. “Securing a unitary and coherent constitutional act of justice, based on common fundamental principles at European level, leads to a better respect for the rights of those involved into the act of justice”, said Basescu.

The President emphasized that in the great majority of the European states, in contrast with the regular courts, the constitutional courts are the sole instances which examine exclusively issues pertaining to the law’s conformity with the Constitution’s consecrated principles. “In the context in which the fundamental law is at the base of the entire normative and institutional system, the attention granted to the constitutional courts as a guarantor of Constitution’s supremacy is absolutely justified. If the adoption of a Constitution represents an act of great responsibility (…) and the statute of constitutional jurisdictions must be in line with their prerogatives”, Traian Basescu also said.

CCR organizes on Thursday and Friday, at the Parliament Palace, the Preparatory meeting of the Circle of Presidents of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts.

This event is organized by CCR in the context in which in June 2008 Romania was designated to takeover, for a three-year period (2008-2011), the Conference of European Constitutional Courts Presidency, body reuniting 33 constitutional jurisdictions from all over the world and where CCR was admitted as a full-fledged member in 1994.

According to the Conference statute, the Constitutional Court organizes in Bucharest both the the Preparatory meeting of the Circle of Presidents of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts and its 15th Congress, in 2011.

In June 2008 as well, CCR President Ioan Vida was designated as rapporteur on behalf of the European regional network on the occasion of the first World Conference on Constitutional Justice, in Cape Town, 23-24 Jan. 2009, organized by South Africa”s Constitutional Court in cooperation with the the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission). The Conference of European Constitutional Courts was established in 1972 by the constitutional courts from Germany, Austria, Italy and Yugoslavia.

The highest number of constitutional courts entered this conference in the past ten years. At present the body has 33 full-fledged members and one with associate status.