In test case, Constitutional Court sides with president over armed forces powers

Country’s highest court rules that portions of a law that moved some powers relating to the armed forces from the president to the prime minister were unconstitutional. It is the first in a series of key decisions the court is expected to take on laws the ruling majority pushed through parliament in July.
TIRANA, Dec. 4 – Albania’s Constitutional Court has voided parts of a new law on the military command structure, returning to the country’s president certain powers that had been moved to the prime minister under the new law.
The court took the decision after President Bujar Nishani filed a case, saying the entire law was “incompatible with the constitution.”
The Constitutional Court agreed with most, but not all the complaints sent by Nishani, invalidating the powers given to the prime minister to “move to reserve or release high ranking officers from duty, at the proposal of the Minister of Defense, with the exception of the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces.” It also said the prime minister could not “at the proposal of the Minister of Defense plan deployment and spread of the Armed Forces in peacetime.” All these powers fall under the president as the highest authority over of the armed forces, the court ruled, interpreting the constitution.
The case was important because it is the first in a series of similar cases that have been filed for the court’s consideration by the president, opposition and other actors challenging a wide range of reforms the Socialist-led government has undertaken. The most important among these challenges revolves the administrative reform, which reshapes local governance and territorial boundaries, and which has as many opponents and supporters.
However, in the military powers case, the court did uphold the right of the Prime Minister “to approve, at the proposal of the Minister of Defense, the organizational structure of the Armed Forces.”
The decision of the Constitutional Court also voided two other points related to the competence of the Prime Minister during emergency situations where he determined was “directly responsible for the running of the Armed Forces, through the leadership hierarchy of command” and competence during his state of natural disaster as “responsible for the running of the Armed Forces, through the leadership hierarchy of command.”
The law in question adopted by parliament last June, and President Nishani vetoed it, objecting to the transfer of powers from the presidency to the government. The ruling majority over-voted the veto, which forced the president to take the case to court.
Several other laws, including the administrative reform, went through the same process.