The President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova supports the initiative of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to condemn the annexation of Crimea, launched at the Conference of European Constitutional Courts

The President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova, Alexandru Tănase, attending the meeting of the Circle of Presidents of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts (CECC), which was held in Batumi (Georgia) on 9-11 September, supported the initiative of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to discuss and condemn the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of 19 March 2014 that paved the way to the annexation by Russia of a part of Ukraine's territory - Crimea.

The presidents of the constitutional courts of Georgia, Moldova, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Cyprus, Azerbaijan and other European states signed a Joint Statement on respect for the territorial integrity and international law in administering constitutional justice (the full text of the Joint Statement may be viewed here).

This document, which as of 10 September 2015 may be signed by members of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts, urges constitutional courts not to remain indifferent at a time when the imperative requirements of the rule of law, obliging to respect the general principles of law, the main principles of international law and the values of a democratic constitutional order, are blatantly violated. At the meeting of the Circle of Presidents of the CECC, Alexandru Tănase noted that, that this precedent regarding the use of constitutional justice as a tool for annexation of a territory of another State, is extremely dangerous, also taking into account similar claims that exist in the territories on the left bank of the Nistru river of Moldova, which is under Russian military occupation, it undermining fundamental values declared by the CECC - the rule of law, democracy, respect for human rights and the independence of the judiciary.

The President of the Constitutional Court drew attention to the fact that the adoption of the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is an unprecedented incident showing that this Constitutional Court has become a tool for committing a gross violation of international legal norms. "Such decisions, that are clearly not in line with the requirements for the fundamental principle of the rule of law, show us that nowadays no one can guarantee that such annexations of territories of other states will not take place," stated Alexandru Tănase.

On 9-11 September the President of the Constitutional Court is taking part in the meeting of the Circle of Presidents of the CECC, in which preparation for the upcoming XVII Congress of the CECC and other organisational issues are discussed. The presidents of the constitutional courts are considering relevant problems of the application of international treaties in the practice of constitutional courts.

The original version of this press release in Romanian is available here.