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The request of the President of the Republic to the Constitutional Court regarding the renewal of mandates

The Constitutional Court issued a decision on 23.12.2024, declaring the end of the mandate for Constitutional Judge Mrs. Holta Zaçaj to uphold and enable the partial renewal of the Court every three years, as required by the Constitution.
Judge Zaçaj was appointed as a Constitutional Judge in January 2023, nearly six years after the vacancy was created due to circumstances beyond her control. All constitutional judges appointed after 2016 have assumed their roles with delays from the moment their respective vacancies arose.
The law governing the Constitutional Court specifies that a judge’s mandate begins on the date of swearing-in and, for the initial judges, concludes either eight or nine years later. Given the delayed appointments of initial judges, applying this provision strictly would disrupt the principle of partial renewal, not only in 2025 but also in 2028 and 2031.
In the case of Judge Zaçaj, the Court found a solution by linking the start of her mandate to the date on which her predecessor’s mandate ended and setting its conclusion in line with the scheduled partial renewal. However, the Court did not specify whether this approach applies to other constitutional judges whose delayed appointments similarly impact the renewal process.
Partial renewal involves three specific mandates at a time. For the scheduled 2025 renewal to take place as intended, the Court’s reasoning should logically extend to the two other mandates falling within the same renewal period. The Constitutional Court’s decision does not provide clarity on this point, and the deadline for declaring the end of these mandates has passed without action, creating uncertainty for the appointing authorities.
The Constitutional Court had a responsibility to ensure complete clarity regarding its decisions, as it should be the first and most accurate executor of its own rulings. However, the outcome of its decision has effectively placed the responsibility on other institutions.
Faced with this inaction, the President of the Republic has exercised the only legal option available—submitting a request for a competence dispute—to ensure that the Constitutional Court fully, comprehensively, and constitutionally resolves the deadlock affecting the partial renewal mechanism.
The President of the Republic hopes that this request will lead to a definitive clarification on how the partial renewal of the Court should be carried out in strict compliance with the Constitution. This clarification must apply uniformly to all current constitutional judges. Otherwise, there would be no way to correct the disruption to the renewal mechanism, and any selective intervention to shorten mandates for only one or some judges would constitute a clear violation of the Constitution.

For the sake of public transparency, the full text of the request submitted to the Constitutional Court is attached to this announcement.