Aspect of Romania's Representation at the European Council

Abstract

Representation of Romania at the European Council's meetings has been a controversial issue, a subject of reflection for the Constitutional Court which pronounced three decisions on this matter, each of them expressing distinct opinions.Romania's representation at the European Council's meetings has become a topic of great interest with the onset of a constitutional legal conflict between the President and the Prime Minister. This conflict occurred in the summer of 2012, when it raised the issue of who would represent Romania at the European Council's meeting on June 28-29th of the same year.The Constitutional Court has pronounced two decisions on the matter - Decision no. 683/2012 and Decision no. 784/2012-, which provide “in the exercise of his attributions, The President of Romania participates at the European Council's meetings as head of state. This attribution may be delegated by the President of Romania, expressly, to the Prime Minister.In this context, the Constitutional Court was notified by the head of state with an objection of unconstitutionality of certain provisions of the Law on the Cooperation between Parliament and Government in European affairs. So, the Constitutional Court pronounced the third decision whereby it changed some aspects of its own jurisprudence on the matter.This study reveals and comments on the three decisions of the Constitutional Court and presents the opinions expressed by the doctrine on the subject under analysis. Finally, mainly for reasons of efficiency, we make some arguments in favour of the participation of the Prime Minister at European Council's meetings.