BUCHAREST – Romania's three extremist parliamentary parties – AUR, SOS Romania and POT – challenged at the Constitutional Court (CCR) on Monday bills passed by parliament that would allow the country to shoot down drones that illegally enter its airspace. The appeal prevents the laws from being made public.
The Senate, as the decision-making chamber, approved on February 26 a bill from the Defense Ministry that would allow the Romanian Army, as well as allied forces, to intercept and shoot down unauthorized drones or aircraft entering Romanian airspace. This would be done using air defense systems, including ground-based air defense, operated by national or allied forces.
According to the draft law, military forces and assets of allied or partner states may also participate in such operations in accordance with collective defence treaties to which Romania is a signatory or in accordance with bilateral security agreements.
Despite the significance of this bill, the three extremist parties did not publicly announce their initiative. The information was instead revealed by USR (Renew).
While Europe discusses strengthening the EU and Ukraine's defense against the “increasingly obvious Russian threat,” in Romania, AUR, SOS and POT have asked the CCR to oppose laws that allow the Romanian army “to shoot down Russian drones that have been violating our airspace for months,” USR leader Elena Lasconi wrote on Facebook.
“These isolationist parties are not fighting for Romania, but against it,” Lasconi added, accusing them of leaving the country “vulnerable” “at a critical moment.”
Following the vote on February 26, the laws were to be promulgated by interim President Ilie Boloyan. However, the CCR will only hear the appeal filed by AUR, SOS and POT, which voted against the laws in both houses of parliament, on March 27.
During the parliamentary debate, AUR MP Dan Tanasă argued that the law would effectively “hand over the governance of Romania to foreigners.”
Similarly, SOS MP Dumitru Coarna said Romania has nothing to do with Russia. “We want to be neutral,” Coarna said, warning that the bill could drag the country into war.
Romania shares a nearly 650-kilometer border with Ukraine, and since the Russian invasion in February 2022, Russian drones have repeatedly entered Romanian airspace. Several have even crashed on Romanian territory near the border with the war-torn country.
(Sebastian Rotaru | Euractiv.ro)
Source: euractiv.com
