April 20, 2021
The Sovereignty Act. The Time Has Come
33 articles that change Romania!
After discussions with hundreds of people and consultations with dozens of specialists in law and with dozens more involved in the life of the city, I have the joy of bringing to your notice the latest version of the Sovereignty Law — the 10th and probably the last, to which we shall add only the statement of reasons and some minor amendments.
Legislative project v. 10: the Sovereignty Law, or the Law for the protection of the superior and sovereign interest of the Romanian people and citizen
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Chapter I — Ecological measures for the protection of the superior and sovereign interest of the Romanian people and citizen
1. Article 29 of Law 46 of 19 March 2008 — the Forestry Code is amended and shall read as follows: “Clearances and clear-cuttings on the territory of Romania, including those justified by ecological reconstruction, regeneration and tending of the forests, are prohibited until 1 January 2121.” Paragraphs 2 to 5 of Article 29 of Law 46 of 19 March 2008 — the Forestry Code are repealed.
2. To art. 108(1) of Law no. 46 of 19 March 2008 — the Forestry Code two new letters are added, letters e) and f), with the following content: “e) with imprisonment from 7 to 20 years, the deed of causing disease in, or infesting with pests, the trees of the forest fund; f) with imprisonment from 7 to 20 years, the breach of the prohibition laid down in art. 29 of the present law.”
3. As from the entry into force of the present law, the export of unprocessed timber — including logs, with or without bark, sawn timber, beams or railway sleepers — is prohibited until 1 January 2121. Failure to observe the prohibition on the export of timber shall be punished by imprisonment from 7 to 20 years and the prohibition of certain rights.
4. Article 13 of Law no. 211/2011 on the regime of waste is amended by adding paragraph 2, which shall read as follows: “The bringing into the country of waste of any nature whatever is prohibited.”
CHAPTER II — Measures in the economic field for the protection of the superior and sovereign interest of the Romanian people and citizen
5. As from the entry into force of the present law, the alienation of the assets of the Romanian State or of the shares held by the State in national companies and undertakings, in credit institutions, and in any other company in which the State is a shareholder — whatever the proportion of registered capital held — is prohibited until 1 January 2121.
6. As from the entry into force of the present law, the concession of goods in the public ownership of the State shall be approved by Parliament.
7. To art. 307 of the Administrative Code of 03.07.2019, after paragraph (1) a new paragraph is added, paragraph (1¹), with the following content: “The minimum royalty obtained by concession may not fall below the average level of the European market.”
8. Romania’s gold reserve shall be deposited exclusively and in its entirety with the National Bank of Romania. Within a maximum of 180 days from the publication of the present Law in the Official Gazette of Romania, the National Bank of Romania shall repatriate in its entirety the gold deposited outside Romania.
9. As from the entry into force of the present law, the contracts concluded by the Romanian State are public and shall be published on the website of the contracting institution and in the Official Gazette, Part IV. Within no more than 5 days from the adoption of the present law, all contracts concluded by the Romanian State up to that date shall be published on the website of the contracting institution and in the Official Gazette, Part IV.
10. The omission of an official to carry out concession or privatisation contracts according to their clauses, or, as the case may be, the omission to bring actions for their enforcement, committed intentionally, shall be punished by imprisonment from 10 to 20 years and the prohibition of certain rights. The omission of an official to carry out concession or privatisation contracts according to their clauses, or, as the case may be, the omission to bring actions for their enforcement, committed negligently, shall be punished by imprisonment from 5 to 10 years and the prohibition of certain rights.
11. After paragraph 1 of art. 394 of the Criminal Code a new paragraph is inserted, paragraph 2, with the following content: “Where the deed provided for in paragraph 1, letter b, has caused significant damage to the national economy, the punishment shall be life imprisonment or imprisonment from 15 to 25 years and the prohibition of certain rights.”
12. As from the entry into force of the present law, the marketing on the territory of Romania of any products of a quality inferior to those marketed under the same brand in the country of origin is prohibited. The marketing under the same brand of goods of differing qualities is prohibited. Breach of the present legal norm constitutes a misleading commercial practice within the meaning of art. 7(2) of Law 363/2007 of 21 December 2007 and shall entail the sanctioning of the trader with a fine of between €10,000,000 and €50,000,000, according to the gravity of the deed.
Chapter III — Measures for strengthening the rule of law and protecting the superior and sovereign interest of the Romanian people and citizen
13. Limitations of fundamental human rights and liberties may not be established by Emergency Ordinance or by normative administrative acts.
14. Law 55/2020 on certain measures for preventing and combating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is repealed.
15. Medical treatments and devices may be administered to, respectively applied to, Romanian citizens only upon the prior obtaining of the informed and written agreement and consent of the patients or of their legal representatives, following prior and obligatory information given orally and on the basis of the leaflets and documentation supplied by the manufacturer of the medicines or devices proposed, with the exception of medical emergencies which endanger the patient’s life and require immediate treatment. No citizen may be discriminated against, positively or negatively, as a consequence of accepting or refusing a medical treatment or device.
16. No medicines or medical devices may be marketed, and no medical treatments applied, for which the manufacturer does not offer guarantees and does not assume full responsibility for adverse reactions and/or effects, drug interactions, short- and long-term effects, effects upon pregnancy, breastfeeding and fertility, and does not offer remedies and/or demonstrably viable solutions against them, as well as compensation. At the same time, the marketing of medicines, vaccines, medical devices and other pharmaceutical products for which complete clinical trials have not been carried out and for which there are no national authorisations according to the methodology laid down by Laws is prohibited.
17. Any form of commercial advertising on television, on the radio and on the social networks for authorised or unauthorised medicines, vaccines, medical devices and other pharmaceutical products is prohibited.
18. Art. 297 of the Criminal Code — Abuse of office — is amended as follows: 1. Paragraph 1 is amended and shall read: “The deed of a public servant who, in the exercise of his duties, fails to perform an act or performs it in breach of the law for the purpose of obtaining an undue advantage and thereby causes damage to, or an injury of, the rights or legitimate interests of a natural or a legal person, shall be punished by imprisonment from 2 to 7 years and the prohibition of the right to hold public office.” 2. Paragraph 2 is amended and shall read: “(2) The same punishment shall apply to the deed of a public servant who, in the exercise of his duties, restricts the exercise of a person’s right or creates for that person a situation of inferiority on grounds of race, nationality, ethnic origin, language, religion, sex, sexual orientation, political affiliation, wealth, age, disability, acceptance or refusal of a medical treatment or device, chronic non-contagious illness, or HIV/AIDS, CoViD-19 infection or the like.” 3. The deed of a public servant of applying any legal norms declared unconstitutional by a Decision of the Constitutional Court shall be punished by imprisonment from 7 to 10 years.
19. Article 247 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is amended and shall read as follows: “(1) The judge of rights and liberties, during the criminal investigation, the judge of the preliminary chamber, for the duration of the preliminary chamber procedure, or the court, during the trial, may order the provisional medical committal of a suspect or defendant who is mentally ill or a chronic user of psychoactive substances, if the perpetrator’s condition was determinant for the commission of the deed and the measure is necessary in order to remove a concrete and present danger to public safety. (2) The measure provided for in paragraph (1) consists in the involuntary medical committal of the suspect or defendant to a specialised medical care unit and is taken for a period of at most 60 days, and may be extended until recovery or until such improvement as removes the state of danger that occasioned the measure.
20. Article 18(2) of LAW no. 202 of 9 November 1998 (*republished*) on the organisation of the Official Gazette of Romania is amended and shall read: “The electronic format of the Official Gazette of Romania is available free of charge and without restriction, permanently. The free and unrestricted electronic format is a portable document, without watermark or inscriptions additional to the printed format; it becomes accessible to all users on the same day as publication, including for searching, saving, sharing and printing.”
21. The deletion of posts and the blocking of accounts is prohibited — with the exception of those constituting breaches of the legal provisions in force — on the social networks and/or in the online environment (whether by account administrators or by any other entities). Any breach of the provisions of paragraph 1 entails the material liability of the social network or of the site. Any dispute concerning the activity of social networks or of public sites shall be settled by the district court of the claimant’s domicile. The action is exempt from stamp duty.
Chapter IV — Measures in the field of national security and defence for the protection of the superior and sovereign interest of the Romanian people and citizen
22. The services of intelligence, counter-intelligence, protection, special telecommunications and those assimilated thereto shall be organised exclusively as civilian bodies; their employees shall by assimilation become public servants of special status, having the right to organise themselves in trade unions and to be investigated by the corresponding civilian prosecutor’s offices. Their statute shall be regulated by organic law. (To that end, the employees of the said institutions shall not hold military ranks or their equivalent, and hierarchical relations shall not be organised according to military rules.)
23. The participation in any manner of the services of intelligence, counter-intelligence and those assimilated thereto in the performance of any acts of judicial procedure, with the exception of those concerning acts of espionage or terrorism, is prohibited. Influencing in any manner the prosecutor or the judge charged with conducting an investigation, by any person, including from within the secret services, constitutes an offence and shall be punished by imprisonment from 10 to 20 years. The attempt shall be punished. Failure to report the intervention provided for in paragraph 1 constitutes an offence and shall be punished by the same penalty.
24. The participation in any manner of the services of intelligence, counter-intelligence and those assimilated thereto in the carrying out of any activities of a political, economic or media character is prohibited. It is prohibited to hold commercial companies, directly or indirectly, through their own personnel or through intermediaries, or to carry on commercial activities on the territory of Romania or abroad, by the intelligence services. The services of intelligence and counter-intelligence may not use funds other than those provided for in the State Budget Law. Any gains obtained by these services in the course of their specific activities shall be paid into the State budget. Likewise prohibited are civil-society organisations initiated or led, directly or through intermediaries, by the secret services, or the financing of any NGO. Breach of the provisions of paragraphs 1 to 4 constitutes a criminal offence and shall be punished by imprisonment from 10 to 20 years.
25. Article 110(1) of LAW no. 208 of 20 July 2015 on the election of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies, and on the organisation and functioning of the Permanent Electoral Authority, is amended and shall read: “The Permanent Electoral Authority, with the support of the National Institute of Statistics, ensures the implementation and management of the Information System for monitoring turnout and preventing illegal voting, on the basis of the data and information from the Electoral Register and the Register of polling stations.”
26. Article 110(3) of LAW no. 208 of 20 July 2015 on the election of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies, and on the organisation and functioning of the Permanent Electoral Authority, is amended and shall read: “For the implementation and functioning during elections of the Information System for monitoring turnout and preventing illegal voting, use shall as a rule be made of the information infrastructure held by the central and local public administration authorities and by educational establishments.”
27. Article 110(4) of LAW no. 208 of 20 July 2015 on the election of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies, and on the organisation and functioning of the Permanent Electoral Authority, is amended and shall read: “The organisation of elections, referendums and other popular consultations, as well as the administration of the processes specific to them, including the counting of votes — with the exception of guard and order duties — shall be carried out exclusively by the Electoral Bureaux, Central and Local respectively. Breach of this provision constitutes an offence and shall be punished by imprisonment from 7 to 10 years.”
28. As from the entry into force of the present law, the following legal provisions are repealed: art. 110(8), art. 102¹(4), art. 110(8) of LAW no. 208 of 20 July 2015; art. 103¹, art. 92¹(3), (4) and (5) of Law 202 of 16 September 2020 amending and supplementing certain normative acts in electoral matters.
29. To Article 398 of the Criminal Code paragraph 2 is added, reading as follows: “Likewise, an act of High treason attracting the same punishment is the Refusal of the President of Romania to put into effect the Decisions of the Constitutional Court settling conflicts of a constitutional nature, within 10 days from the communication of the operative part.”
30. To art. 453(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure a new letter is added, letter g), with the following content: “the judgment was founded upon a legal provision that has been repealed or amended after the judgment became final, where the criminal provisions are more favourable or the deed has been decriminalised.”
31. The National Guard is established, on the principle of the defence of the whole national territory by the whole people on a voluntary basis. Any Romanian citizen aged between 18 and 55 may be a volunteer in the National Guard. The organisation, functioning and financing of the National Guard, as well as the regime of training and of the holding of weapons by Members of the National Guard, shall be laid down by organic Law.
32. As from the entry into force of the present law, military equipment shall be acquired only from its manufacturer and only under the conditions of Emergency Ordinance no. 189/2002.
Chapter V — Final and transitional provisions
33. The present law shall enter into force on the date of its publication in the official gazette, any contrary provision being repealed by operation of law as from that date.
Those who wish may take part in the signature-gathering campaign at http://VremSuveranitate.ro/
#WeWantSovereignty
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