Debate over magistrates’ pay, Rama: The Constitutional Court is the referee, but it cannot take the penalty kick

During the parliamentary debate on magistrates’ salaries, Prime Minister Edi Rama focused on the role of the Constitutional Court and its relationship with the legislature. Discussing the draft law that seeks changes to the law on the status of judges and prosecutors, Rama compared the Constitutional Court to a referee in a football match, arguing that it can note violations and strike down a norm, but cannot take over Parliament’s powers to determine the content of a law. Rama emphasized that the Constitutional Court is an independent power, both from Parliament and from the executive, and that its role is to review whether acts comply with the Constitution.

“The Constitutional Court is the referee. It cannot stop the game, it can note the violation, it can annul the goal, but it cannot take the ball and say: the ball is mine, I will take the penalty. The Constitutional Court, as another independent power, is independent of us as legislators and independent of us as the executive in telling us when we raise our hand wrongly,” he said.

According to the prime minister, however, this independence does not give the Constitutional Court the power to dictate to Parliament how it should draft or vote on a legal norm.

“But if we raise our hand wrongly and the Constitutional Court tells us: ‘With this raising of the hand this norm is violated,’ the Constitutional Court can never tell an independent power like Parliament how it should raise its hand. That cannot happen. Today in the hall there are 84 votes, needed to approve this norm. The Court can annul a tax that unconstitutionally discriminates against a category of citizens, but the Court cannot set the tax rate. It can strike down a pension provision that undermines equality or legal certainty, but it cannot design the pension scheme and determine how many lek the pensioner will receive,” Rama emphasized.