Constitutional Court Allowed Parliament to Approve National Security Strategy without Taking into Account the Opinion of the President

The Constitutional Court declared the legal procedure for adopting a national security strategy, the parliament voted for in July 2018. The court also recognized Parliament as the only body authorized to enact laws on national defense. President Igor Dodon tried to challenge the competence of the parliament in court, pointing out his status as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The decision was made on December 21 by a renewed composition of the Constitutional Court, which recently included ex-Prosecutor General Corneliu Gurin and deputies of the Democratic Party Artur Reshetnikov and Raisa Apolski. In their decision, the judges point out that Parliament has exclusive competence in enacting laws relating to defense, adopting a national security strategy is within the competence of the Parliament, and the president can interfere in “state security matter” only by means of measures provided by law. Going to the Constitutional Court, Dodon asked the Constitutional Court to determine whether the National Defense Strategy and the action plan for implementing the national defense strategy for 2018-2022 could be considered constitutional by parliament in July without considering the president’s opinion. In his appeal to the Constitutional Court, the president also asked for clarification of the meaning of some constitutional norms that relate to cooperation in the defense of parliament and the government with the president as supreme commander of the armed forces. It should be recall that in July 2018, the Parliament adopted the National Security Strategy proposed by the Supreme Security Council under the leadership of former President Nicolae Timofti. In June, Igor Dodon issued a decree revoking the strategy from the Parliament, but despite this, the parliamentary majority adopted the document. In August, Dodon instructed his advisers to formulate and submit to the parliament a new national security strategy “based on an analysis of the real risks and threats to the national security of the Republic of Moldova”. The President believes that the adopted strategy does not correspond to significant changes in national, regional and international security. The President of Moldova has previously entered into conflict with the Parliament and the Government because of issues related to defense. In particular, in 2017, he refused to approve Eugen Sturza’s candidacy for the post of Defense Minister, that is why he was temporarily removed from his post for the first time. Source: Newsmaker