In an opinion adopted today, the Council of Europe’s constitutional law experts, the Venice Commission, found that the conditions for the dissolution of parliament clearly did not exist in the Republic of Moldova on 7 or 8 June 2019.
The Venice Commission considers that the Constitutional Court did not respect its own procedures nor the principle of equality of the parties when dealing with the recent political crisis. It also recalls that an essential role of the Constitutional Court is to maintain equal distance from all branches of power and to act as an impartial arbiter in case of collision between them, whilst respecting the solutions reached by democratically legitimate institutions.
The Opinion was prepared at the request of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, after political developments in the country and Constitutional Court decisions resulted in the dissolution of the Moldovan parliament on 9 June. The dissolution was based on the alleged expiration of a three-month deadline to form a government after the parliamentary elections held earlier this year. On 15 June the Constitutional Court revisited these decisions considering the new political developments in the country, particularly the announced transfer of power to a new government.
The preparation of this opinion was funded through the Partnership for Good Governance, a Joint Programme funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.
