The Venice Commission published the opinion adopted on June 21 on the subject of the Constitutional Court’s decisions  of June 7-9.

‘’In the present case, the procedural rights of both the President and of parliament have been severely affected by the number (five) and the extreme speed, and even rush (one day or two days during the weekend) with which the Court decided these extremely sensitive cases carrying potentially very significant repercussions on the state institutions. No representative of either the President or parliament (the respondent parties) was present, and there is no indication that they were given the possibility of submitting their arguments in reply to those contained in the applications. 

The Constitutional Court of Moldova informed the Commission that “on 8 and 9 June, representatives of parliament were not invited as the Parliament itself had not been established yet in compliance with the Constitution”. Yet, the parliament was only dissolved by Pavel Filip on 9 June; in addition, three of its members 12 were considered to have locus standi before the Constitutional Court. 

In the Commission’s view even if they and the President had been formally given the possibility of participating in the hearings or of submitting written arguments, it would not have been possible for them to prepare substantive arguments on five such cases within a time-span of a weekend. The five applications, all lodged by the same representatives of the Democratic Party, followed a clear strategy; the respondent institutions did not dispose of enough time and possibilities to counter such strategy. Moreover, nothing suggests that the situation prevailing in the country at that time was one of emergency: while the only argument given by the Court to justify its immediate decisions was the expiry of the three-month time-limit to form the government and the need to prevent the paralysis of state institutions, the developments in parliament suggested to the contrary that additional time would lead to a solution of the crisis. Indeed, the crisis deepened and instability was rather brought about by the coordinated action at lightning speed of the Democratic Party and the Constitutional Court as of 7 June. ‘’

On June 21, after studying the recent decisions of the Constitutional Court, the Venice Commission experts found that there were no conditions for dissolution in the Republic of Moldova during June 7-8, and constitutional judges did not respect their own procedures and the principle the equality of the parties in the case of the political crisis.

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