Draft changes to Romania Constitution include articles regulating NATO and EU accession – an aim accomplished back in 2004 and 2007 respectively

Draft changes to the Constitution, which were presented by Romania’s PM Emil Boc on Wednesday, include small changes to two articles which would have normally be removed from the fundamental law: one on how the Parliament approves Romania’s EU accession and another related to the NATO accession. Romania has been a member of the EU since 2007 and joined NATO in 2004, so articles 148 and 149 of the Constition should have simply be removed, according to constitutional experts.

The two articles belong to the VI chapter of the 2003 Constitution, related to the Euro-Atlantic accession. And the only difference between the original articles and the ones changed according to the current Government and Presidency proposals is that mentions of the two chambers of the parliament disappear as they are replaced with the generic term „Parliament”.

The main goal of the current constitutional review pushed by authorities is to set stage for a single-chamber parliament, to replace the current two-chamber legislature.

Several experts and presidency aides who have conceived a report on constitutional changes last year told HotNews.ro that they were not consulted when the changes now pushed by authorities were drafted. PM Emil Boc said on Wednesday that both Government and Presidency experts have worked on the draft for a month.