The Right to Good Administration - In Stato Nascendi in Romania

The right to good administration is set down in terminis in art. 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Its main characteristic is the right of every person to have his or her affairs handled impartially, fairly and within a reasonable time, the right of an individual to be heard before any individual measure which would adversely affect him or her is taken by the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union, the right to have access to his/her own file, the right to claim damage from the aforementioned structures, the right to “petition” and its formulation in one of the languages of the European Treaties. Art. 41 is found in Chapter V of the Charter, so that the interpretation of its provisions should be carried out in the light of other norms herein contained, especially in relation to art. 43 regulating the European Ombudsman and art. 44 regarding the petitions addressed to the European Parliament. In order to determine the scope of its application as well as its precise contents, art. 41 needs to be interpreted in close relation to other norms contained in the EU Treaties and in the texts of derivative law – as well as norms regarding the principle of transparency, the right to have access to documents, etc. When this article is applied in our country, we should take into consideration the similar regulations in the Romanian law, those related to the good administration, as well as those related to the “right to petitioning” stipulated by art. 51 of the Constitution, those regarding “the free access to justice” (art. 21) and the “right of the party injured by a public authority” (art. 52), etc.Overlooking the imperfections of the regulations of the right to good administration, we wonder whether we may speak of the existence of this right in Romania. Considering the possibility of the direct application of the community law, on the one hand, and the presence of certain constitutional norms setting down some of the exigencies of this right, on the other hand – as well as art. 16, 31, 51 line 1, 51 line 3, 51 line 4, - the answer is affirmative. Therefore, the right to good administration is in stato nascendi in Romania, but that shouldn’t prevent us from sanctioning it in the Constitution, on the occasion of its first revision, hoping this action does not point out to a new instance of hypocrisy on the part of the constituent, but to an important step in view of accomplishing the exigencies of the principle of the constitutional state.