Opposition To Challenge Money Laundering Prevention Bill At The Constitutional Court

Romania’s main parliamentary opposition parties PNL and USR announced on Wednesday that they will challenge the recently passed money laundering prevention bill at the Constitutional Court, after it was controversially adopted following the repeat of its Lower Chamber vote.

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PNL MP Gabriel Andronache announced that the liberals will challenge the bill, stating some of its provisions are discriminatory and contrary to personal data protection regulations, while his colleague Raluca Turcan accused the ruling PSD-ALDE coalition of passing the bill “through thievery and threats”.

USR chairman Dan Barna called the situation “an unprecedented abuse in the history of the Parliament” and also announced that his group will also challenge the bill at the Constitutional Court.

“At this moment we do not have a Parliament in Romania, we have a vehicle which Mr. Liviu Dragnea uses according to his own interests, because this bill was also a trade he tried to make, but did not gain the vote of our colleagues in Parliament,” said Barna.

The bill in question was passed with 170 votes for, 70 against and one abstention on a second attempt, after the Social Democrat Party (PSD) group leader, Daniel Suciu requested a repeat of the vote, stating that the options of two present MPs were not registered by the electronic voting system.

The vote initially failed after gaining 163 votes for, short of the necessary 165, prompting opposition MPs to vehemently protest the decision to repeat it.

The initiative integrates an EU directive on preventing money laundering and terrorism financing, but was the source of controversy due to provisions which would have NGOs report all individuals who benefit from their activity.

According to the bill, NGOs must register all individuals they assist, a provision which Hungarian minority party UDMR criticized as being unfeasible, as it could lead to the need of registering millions of individuals. An exemption to this provision was made for associations of minority citizens which are members of the National Minority Council.

The bill will be sent to President Klaus Iohannis for enactment.

Read more: Lower Chamber Passes Money Laundering Prevention Bill Amid Vote Controversy

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