a) Hungary / b) Constitutional Court / c) / d) 31-03-2010 / e) 33/2010 / f) / g) Magyar Közlöny (Official Gazette), 2010/47 / h) .
Keywords of the Systematic Thesaurus:
General Principles - Separation of powers.
Institutions - Legislative bodies - Powers.
Institutions - Legislative bodies - Law-making procedure.
Institutions - Executive bodies - Application of laws - Autonomous rule-making powers.
Institutions - Public finances.
Keywords of the alphabetical index:
Decree, legislative, review, constitutional.
Granting legislative powers to the President of the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority would have required constitutional amendment.
At its session of 23 November 2009, Parliament passed an Act on the Amendment of several acts concerning the legislative power of the President of the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority (or HFSA).
The President of the Republic did not sign the Amendment because he had concerns over its constitutionality. Exercising the power vested in him by Article 26.4 of the Constitution, he initiated a constitutional review of the Amendment.
The President observed that only the Constitution can grant legislative power. Without amending the Constitution, the President of the HFSA had no right to issue decrees.
The amendment under dispute changed the Acts on capital market, insurance, reinsurance and investment business, granting the President of the HFSA authority to issue decrees pertaining to these sectors.
The Constitutional Court noted that under the Constitution only the Parliament has legislative power (Article 19.3). The Government (Article 35.2), members of the Government (Article 37.2), the President of the Hungarian National Bank (Article 32/D.4) and local representative bodies (Article 44/A.2) are allowed to issue decrees. During a national crisis, the National Defence Council may issue decrees, as may the President of the Republic during a state of emergency (Article 19/B, 19/C).
The Constitution grants the above institutions exclusive power to enact statutes and to issue decrees. Therefore any statute granting legislative power to state institutions other than those listed in the Constitution is unconstitutional.
Consequently, the Constitutional Court declared the HFSA head's legislative rights unconstitutional.
Justice Péter Kovács attached a concurring opinion to the decision, in which he emphasised that EU law also forms part of the Hungarian legal system under Article 2/A of the Constitution.