The Constitutional Court of Moldova declared unconstitutional the law providing for the transfer of the Information and Security Service under full control of the parliament and depriving the president of the powers to coordinate the activities of this service.
This decision was made by the Constitutional Court at a meeting on Tuesday, after considering the request of the deputies of the PAS and Platform DA factions, which considered unconstitutional the corresponding amendments to the Law on the Information and Security Service, adopted by the Parliament on December 3, 2020. These amendments removed the provisions from the law according to which the activities of the Information and Security Service are coordinated by the President of Moldova within the limits of his/her powers, and the head of the ISS is appointed and dismissed by the parliament at the suggestion of the head of state. The approved new version of the law stipulated that the director of the ISS would be appointed to office for a period of 5 years by the parliament at the proposal of at least 10 deputies, and also be dismissed by the parliament, at the suggestion of at least 1/3 of the deputies. The parliamentary opposition immediately announced that it would challenge the adopted law in the Constitutional Court, as well as a number of other documents adopted on December 3, since the voting was conducted in violation of the procedure. In addition, the parliament, by its amendments, excluded all the powers of the president in relation to the ISS, especially those related to the coordination of the activities of the ISS, although the president has powers related to ensuring state security, and the president must coordinate the activities of the special services. It should be noted that the parliament in June 2019 voted to return to the president the powers to coordinate the activities of the ISS, and this happened 3 years after the parliament deprived the president of such powers at the end of 2016. // 27.04.2021 — InfoMarket
