The agreement with the Government of the Russian Federation concerning the provision of a state loan of €200 million was declared unconstitutional. The judgment was passed by the Constitutional Court in the evening of May 7, after almost nine hours of deliberations, IPN reports.

The Court declared unconstitutional the Government decisions regarding the initiation of negotiations on the agreement and concerning the approval of the bill to ratify the agreement. The law to ratify the agreement adopted by Parliament on April 23 was also declared unconstitutional.

The Court’s judgment is definitive and cannot be challenged. It takes effect when it is adopted and is published in the Official Gazette. The full decision will be published within five days.

Constitutional judge Eduard Ababei refrained from taking part in the examination of the challengers referring to the Russian loan. He said that he is related to one of the members of the Government, namely Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Pușcuța, Minister of Finance. But the Ministry of Finance was one of the institutions responsible for the negotiation of the lending agreement with Russia.

The agreement on the lending of €200 million by Russia to Moldova was ratified by Parliament on April 23. The Constitutional Court suspended the agreement until the case is examined based on the challenges filed by MPs of the Pro Moldova group, the PAS and the PPPDA.