Constitutional Court rejetcts Lázár's public construction investment bill

In July, Parliament adopted a law on the regulation of public construction investments, but it was not signed by President of the Republic Katalin Novák, who asked the Constitutional Court for a preliminary review of the law. The critical part of the law was that it gave Minister of Construction and Transport János Lázár the possibility to deviate from the provisions of the law by decree.

The judgment of the Constitutional Court agreed with Katalin Novák and found that the relevant provision of the law was contrary to the Constitution.

The legislation lays down detailed rules, some of which are cornerstone provisions. However, the provisions in question allow for derogations from its own rules, even by means of a ministerial decree. Since a ministerial decree is a lower level of legislation, this type of legislation would empty the regulatory framework and violate the hierarchy of norms and legal security.

The Constitutional Court found that the legislator had given himself a general power in the law to derogate from its rules. It is not clear from which rules and under what conditions it would allow derogation, so the full scope and limits of the ministerial power are not sufficiently clear.

In the end, the Constitutional Court concluded that this general authorisation is contrary to the Constitution and creates a possible source of legislatory power. Therefore, it held that the contested provisions were unconstitutional and that the law could not be promulgated.

Lázár had previously hoped that the preliminary review would strengthen the law, but this did not materialise.

János Lázár reacted to the verdict on his Facebook page. The minister wrote that the Constitutional Court's decision is "under consideration".

The decision does not affect the government's efforts to create a completely new public investment system,

the minister wrote on his Facebook page.

János Lázár added that neither the current decision nor the new "difficulties" of the coming weeks and months can distract him from his goal of

building much better, much better and much fairer things in Hungary with taxpayers' money.

Cover photo: MTI Fotó/Márton Mónus