Delegation from the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova at the Constitutional Court

27.09.2019.

On Thursday, 26 September, the delegation from the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova (hereinafter – Moldova) visited the Constitutional Court; the delegation was accompanied by Ambassador of Moldova to Latvia Eugen Revenco. At the Constitutional Court, the delegation was welcomed by President of the Constitutional Court Ineta Ziemele, Justice of the Constitutional Court Daiga Rezevska, Adviser to the President Inguss Kalniņš, and Assistant to the President Ketija Strazda.

At the beginning of the meeting, Ineta Ziemele gave an overview to the members of the delegation of the history of the Constitutional Court, its competence and the model of constitutional review in Latvia. She underscored that the Constitutional Court’s task was to examine the compatibility of legal norms with the Satversme of the Republic of Latvia, as well as balance “clashes” between two or several fundamental rights on the basis of the fundamental principles of a democratic state governed by the rule of law, at the same time taking into account the European Union and international law.

During the meeting, the delegation of Moldova’s parliamentarians expressed interest in cases heard by the Constitutional Court, where the Court had examined issues related to personal data protection. Justice of the Constitutional Court Daiga Rezevska explained to the members of the delegation that the Constitutional Court had recognised general principles of personal data protection in its case law: legality, justice, minimality, and anonymity. She outlined the scope of each principle and explained the Court’s methodology used in hearing these cases as well as drew attention to two recent cases (case No. 2018-18-01  and case No. 2018-11-01), pertaining to personal data protection.

At the end of the meeting, Ineta Ziemele informed the delegation that this year the Latvian Constitutional Court had established co-operation with the Constitutional Court of Moldova. I.e., in June, four assistants to Judges of the Constitutional Court of Moldova had been on an experience-sharing visit at the Latvian Constitutional Court. She emphasized that two more experience-sharing visits of the Constitutional Court of Moldova at the Latvian Constitutional Court had been scheduled by the end of this year. The visits will be financed by the Latvian Government in accordance with the Latvian Development Co-operation Policy Plan for 2019 and the section of this Plan “Transferring Latvia’s Expertise to Partner Countries”.

The delegation from Moldova consisted of members of the Parliament Chiril MOȚPAN, Chairperson of the Committee for National Security, Defence and Public Order, Ivan ZABUNOV, a representative of the Committee for Human Rights and Inter-ethnic Relations, Vasile BOLEA, a representative of the Committee for Appointments and Immunities, as well as Eduard RĂDUCAN, the Director of the National Centre for Personal Data Protection.

The visit was organised in the framework of Twinning project “Capacity Building of the National Centre for Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Moldova”, No. MD 13 ENPI JH 03 17 (MD/29), implemented jointly by Latvia and Germany, and financed by the European Union.