Last updated: 24 August 2018
In an effort to reduce the courts’ workload and to ensure compliance with natural and legal persons’ right of access to justice, the Romanian Parliament recently passed Law no. 212 of 25 July 2018, amending Law no. 554/2004 on administrative proceedings. This law was published on 30 July 2018 in Official Journal no. 490 and became effective on 3 August 2018.
The most important changes stipulated by this law on administrative proceedings are presented to you below.
Jurisdiction of the Courts
It is not a novelty that the courts face a very large volume of activity, especially in administrative proceedings. The reason is that both natural and legal persons often challenge administrative documents issued by public authorities in the exercise of their duties.
In order to reduce the courts’ workload, the threshold depending on which court jurisdiction in patrimonial disputes (especially tax litigations) is determined was increased from 1,000,000 Lei (222,000 Euros) to 3,000,000 Lei ( approximately 666,000 Euros).
Thus, if the amount subject to litigation is less than 3,000,000 Lei, jurisdiction will belong, from now, to the court in whose jurisdiction the plaintiff (a natural or legal person) has its domicile or registered office. On the other hand, if the amount is higher than 3,000,000 Lei, jurisdiction will belong to the Court of Appeal in whose jurisdiction the plaintiff (a natural or legal person) has its domicile or registered office.
Dispute Settlement
In general, administrative proceedings must be ruled upon urgently and in a timely manner. However, in practice, the duration of such disputes often exceeds the duration of ordinary law litigations.
In order to speed up administrative proceedings, the procedure for the regularization of legal actions was abolished. This procedure was inevitably causing the postponement of the first hearing before the court.
Another novelty is the elimination of the judge’s possibility to add ex officio other persons in the proceeding. If the judge considers it useful to add other persons in the proceeding, he/she will have to hear the parties’ pleas on his/her intention. If neither of the parties requests the addition of such person and if the judge considers that the dispute can not proceed without the addition of a third party, he/she will no longer be able to add such third party in the proceeding, ex officio. In this case, the judge will have to dismiss the plaintiff’s legal action. Of course, the plaintiff will be able to re-lodge the administrative proceeding, provided that the legal deadline for lodging it has not expired.