Esteemed Secretary of State,
Following the public debate, held on Monday, January 14, 2008, on the Emergency Ordinance draft that aims to modify and add to the Law of Mines no.85/2003, a group of NGOs (Soros Foundation Romania, Center for Legal Resources, Terra Millenium III Foundation, together with Cultours Association, which expressed a written position), demand that you do not go further with the current form of the project, thus proving that you fully respect the Constitution and the current legislation, as well as the rule of law.

The National Agency for Mineral Resources' modification proposal states that exploitation licenses, other than those regarding radioactive metals and coal, should be in power as soon as the head of the competent authority, that is the NAMR director, sends the approval decree to be published in the Official Gazette. Allegedly, this is just a matter of simplifying the procedure, since the license approval is currently issued through a governmental resolution.

Given the fact that the arguments presented by all participants could not be resolved throughout the public debate within the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and current legislation, we see fit to reaffirm and stand by our convictions, restating the arguments why this Emergency Ordinance project to modify the Law of Mines is a serious act of breaking the Constitution, as well as other laws.

Article 115 of the Romanian Constitution stipulates that "the Government can adopt emergency ordinances only in extraordinary situations that can stand no delay". The justification in the introduction of the draft ordinance, which takes into consideration the major delays in authorizing the mining concession papers, due to the numerous changes of cabinet ministers, do not meet the conditions of an extraordinary situation, that can not be delayed.

Furthermore, simplifying an authorizing procedure for mining concession licenses is under no circumstances an extraordinary situation that can not be delayed. Adopting a procedural simplification through an emergency ordinance would only lead into risible the very reason of this regulating act, that the lawmaker meant it exclusively for extraordinary situations that could not be resolved otherwise.

Moreover, the type of measures mentioned in the draft ordinance is not comprised in the law no.373/28.12.2007 that allows the Government to issue emergency ordinances, which means that such measures can not be adopted during the parliamentary vacation.

On the other hand, based on article 11, letter m of the Law no. 90/2001 regarding the organization and functioning of the Government, with ulterior modifications, the administration of state's public and private properties is Government's task. According to the Romanian Constitution, article 136, paragraph 3, "the underground public wealth (...) is exclusively the object of public property", and according to article 1 of the Law of Mines no. 85/2003, "mineral resources (...) are exclusively the object of public property and they belong to the Romanian state".

In addition, the Ministry of Justice's approval of the order issued by the president of NAMR regarding the authorization of exploitation licenses for mineral resources stipulated in the Emergency Ordinance draft would lead to an unjustified extension of article 53, paragraph 1, letter b of Law no. 90/ 2001 regarding the organization and functioning of the Romanian Government and cabinets, which states that ministers countersign law bills, ordinances and Government's decisions, not orders issued by directors of institutions subordinated to the Government.

Besides all, the emergency ordinance draft also brings modifications and adds to the of the Law of Mines no. 85/2003's application guide, approved by the Government Decision no. 1208/2003. We consider that these stipulations also ought to be subjected to public debate.

In conclusion, we consider that the NAMR initiative to modify the Law of Mines is an abuse and we demand that the current form of the draft be discarded.

SOROS Foundation Romania, through Gabriel Petrescu, Executive Director
Centrul for Legal Resources, through Georgiana Iorgulescu,  Executive Director
Terra Milenium III Foundation, through Lavinia Andrei, President
Cultours Association - Centrul for Cultural Tourism, through Alina Albu, Director