The Venice Commission’s Opinion on the judgements passed by the Constitutional Court on June 7-9 is unprecedented. “It’s the first time ever that the Venice Commission has clearly pointed out that a Constitutional Court has violated the Constitution by incorrectly calculating the three-month period,” Prime Minister Maia Sandu commented on Facebook, IPN reports.
According to her, the CC judges must resign without delay to allow “professional and independent” successors to restore the reputation of this institution. “As long as this Government exists, the Venice Commission decisions will be binding and will be respected,” said Sandu.
President Igor Dodon also reacted. “Judging by what the Commission said, the only method of restoring constitutional stability is for the Constitutional Court judges to resign all together,” stated Igor Dodon.
In its Opinion on June 21, the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s body of experts on constitutional law, said conditions for the dissolution of Parliament clearly did not exist in Moldova on June 7 and 8, and Maia Sandu’s investiture on June 8 met the legal deadline.
“According to the accepted calculation of the three months limit foreseen in the Civil Code, which was previously applied by the Constitutional Court, the time frame for forming a new government expired on 9 June, three calendar months after the confirmation of the election results. 9 June being a Sunday, the applicable deadline was possibly 10 June.”
Further, the Opinion points out that there are strong reasons to conclude that the Constitutional Court’s decision of temporarily suspending the President and the appointment of the Prime Minister as an interim president was not grounded on the Moldovan Constitution.
