According to Ponta, the draft law has been put forward by social democrat MPs Valeriu Zgonea and Dan Sova and has been endorsed by the party.
Ponta called on ruling democrat liberal MPs to support the bill.
Romanian President Traian Basescu recently called on lawmakers to find a way to transpose into national legislation decision 2005/212 of the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) on confiscating illegally obtained property.
The head of state pointed out the JHA decision is a European normative act and all EU member states had to transpose it into their national legislation by March 2007. He highlighted that, the JHA 2005/212 decision also refers to measures allowing authorities to confiscate illegally obtained property transferred to other entities.
Article 44 of the current Constitution, concerning “the right to private property” states (section 8): “Legally-obtained wealth may not be confiscated. Wealth is presumed to have been obtained legally.”
The draft revised Constitution recently sent to Parliament eliminates the final part of the section, to read: “Legally-obtained wealth may not be confiscated.”
The Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional certain provisions of the draft Constitution put forward by Basescu. The court held that a number of provisions were unconstitutional, including those concerning wealth presumed obtained legitimately, parliamentary and ministerial immunity and the membership of the High Council of Magistrates.