The law of December 3, 2020 by which the law of 2018 that authorized the sale of the site of the former Republican Stadium to the United States for construction of a New Embassy Compound was revoked was declared unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court pronounced following the examination of three challenges filed by MPs of the Democratic Party, the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” and the Party of Action and Solidarity, who disputed the law adopted by the parliamentary majority consisting of MPs of the Party of Socialists and the For Moldova Platform, invoking the violation of the parliamentary procedure, of international law norms and the absence of preliminary Government appraisal, IPN reports.

The Court held that the principle of political pluralism in the lawmaking process implies that Parliament should enable the parliamentary opposition to take part in the adoption of laws. This way, even if the parliamentary majority has a common view on the necessity of a law and its votes are enough for adopting his law, in discussions the majority should ensure the right of the opposition MPs to take part by formulating questions and proposals to the bill.

The Court noted that in this case, the period of time offered by Parliament for formulating proposals and amendments to the challenged bill when this was given a first and second readings is insufficient, given the object of the disputed law. Parliament can set time limits for the submission of amendments, which should be reasonable, so as to enable the MPs to analyze the content of bills and to formulate amendments.

The decision is final, cannot be challenged, takes effect when it is adopted and is published in the Official Gazette.

Last week, the CC rejected as inadmissible the application of Socialist MPs Grigore Novac, Vasile Bolea and Alexandr Suhodolski to determine the constitutionality of Law No. 151 of October 4, 2018 concerning the sale of the site of the former Republican Stadium to the United State for construction of a New Embassy Compound.