Nicușor Dan re-sent the law regarding the new consular fees for re-examination. The head of state claims that it is necessary to clarify the phrase “foreign citizens”

President Nicușor Dan sent to the Parliament, for re-examination, the Law on consular services for which fees are charged and the level of consular fees at diplomatic missions and consular offices of Romania abroad, the Presidential Administration announced on Wednesday.

The law presents provisions regarding the notarial activity of diplomatic missions and consular offices of Romania by introducing consular fees for foreign citizens, free of charge only for Romanian citizens.

Diplomatic missions and consular offices of Romania can perform certain notarial acts at the request of both Romanian natural and legal persons, as well as at the request of foreign natural or legal persons, to the extent that the laws and regulations of the state of residence or bilateral agreements do not oppose and if these acts produce legal effects in Romania.

It is also provided that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will fully use the fees related to the notarial services provided at the request of foreign natural or legal persons for the payment of the repatriation expenses of Romanian citizens, deceased in the territory of the states of residence, for which the family cannot bear the repatriation costs and there is no possibility of burial or cremation in the state where the death occurred, as well as to cover the expenses caused by the smooth functioning of the activity of the consular offices of Romania abroad, for the benefit of Romanian citizens.

Also, in the annex, the taxes to be charged for the services provided to foreign natural or legal persons, whose value is expressed in euro, are specified by the Presidential Administration, according to Agerpres.

In his request, the head of state states that one of the reasons for the referral to re-examination is the fact that the normative act would establish “a distinct legal regime for Romanian citizens and for foreign citizens regarding the obligation or not of the prior payment of consular fees for notary activities”, which would generate “uncertainty and unpredictability”.

This state of affairs results from the absence of a clarification of the term “foreigner”, not having established whether it includes exclusively foreign citizens from outside the European Union or also European citizens, from the European Economic Area (EEA) and from the Swiss Confederation, he says.

“Considering the European provisions, any discrimination based on citizenship is prohibited between the citizens of the member states of the European Union in the scope of the treaties. The application of consular fees to the citizens of the member states may constitute an unjustified difference in treatment”, says Nicușor Dan.

Although the law under review considers notarial acts that produce effects exclusively in Romania, through their effect, they can also be used outside the country or they can refer to certain principles or areas of regulation of the European Union. Thus, a difference in treatment between Romanian citizens and those of other member states could harm, even indirectly, the principle of non-discrimination, enshrined in European law, explains the head of state.

Thus, it requires the clarification of the phrase “foreign citizens” and the legal regime of consular and notary fees, so that there is a distinction between citizens of the European Union, the European Economic Area and the Swiss Confederation and those from third countries, with the aim of eliminating the possibility of contradiction with European norms and principles.

Regarding the use of the sums derived from repatriation taxes, the president notes that in this case a legislative parallelism would be created with the norms already in force by which two normative acts regulate the same material field in an overlapping and contradictory way.

“At the level of diplomatic missions, uncertainty can be generated in the application of the rules and the risk of divergent interpretation”, he adds.