With 194 votes in favor, 53 against and 7 abstentions, the Chamber of Deputies quickly adopted on Tuesday a draft law amending the Competition Law and reducing the powers of the Competition Council leadership. The stake of these changes, introduced by PSD and PNL, is the dismissal of the current president of the Competition Council, Bohdan Chiritsa

USR and AUR opposed this bill, but without success. The UDR accuses the ruling coalition of wanting to amend the law on the Competition Council in order to “get rid” of the institution’s president and appoint a “political stunt” in his place.

“The PSD-PNL coalition is doing what it has been doing for more than a year: trying to put a boot on the neck of state institutions. This time it was the turn of the Competition Council, and yesterday they pulled out of the drawer a project from the time of Nikolicea, from around 2017, from the era of Dragnia, the project by which Draghnia tried to seize the Competition Council, a fundamental institution for the proper functioning of the Romanian state, an institution protected by European treaties, an institution that must remain independent, not become a political stick of a coalition force, a temporary coalition, yesterday they removed this project, it was quickly put forward and today they want to bring it to the plenary session, the project through which I disperse the plenary session Competition Councils, get rid of the president of the Competition Council, a person who has shown balance, a person who has criticized the government’s actions when they were bad, and a person who, at this moment, the Competition Council should remain independent,” he said and Moshtyan in the parliament.

Currently, the law stipulates that the term of office of the members of the Competition Council is 5 years, with the possibility of renewing the authority regardless of the duration of the previous authority.

The changes made by the two commissions relate to the duties of the president, vice-presidents and competition boards as follows:

• the term of office is 5 years with the possibility of renewal only once.

To be appointed as a member of the Competition Council, a person must meet the following conditions:

• a) be a citizen of Romania;
• b) have full legal capacity;
• c) be considered fit for health;
• d) have a long-term higher education or the equivalent, confirmed by a diploma recognized by the Romanian state in accordance with the law;
• e) have at least 10 years of business or legal experience;
• is) not to be incapacitated or not to be tried for crimes committed with intent, for which the law prescribes punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 3 years or more, except in cases of rehabilitation, amnesty after conviction or decriminalization of the act.

The number of members of the Competition Council is also increasing from 7 to 11 people.

It should be noted that the President of the Competition Council, Bohdan Chiritsou, is in his third term and was first appointed in 2009. If the law goes into effect, PSD and PNL intend to apply the law retroactively and demand his resignation, parliamentary sources tell HotNews.ro.

Another amendment stipulates that “after this law enters into force, the Presidential Administration, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate shall begin the procedures for appointing members of the Competition Council. Current members of the Council may be proposed and appointed to any of the positions provided for by this law.”

In fact, the draft law introduced by the PSD, PNL and UDMR is due to be discussed in plenary by the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday.

It should be noted that the decision-making forum in this case is the Senate, which will discuss it during this week.