Police promotion stays tied to an available post, not just to meeting the conditions

You can meet every condition for the next rank and still not receive it, if there is no vacant post carrying that rank. The Constitutional Court upheld this rule by Decision no. 105 of 5 February 2026, now published in the Official Gazette of Romania, dismissing as unfounded the plea of unconstitutionality raised against art. 19 para. (1) of Law no. 360/2002 on the Status of Police Officers. It is the second decision in the same issue to concern a professional statute in the area of law enforcement and the armed forces, alongside the one in which a wide-ranging challenge to the Status of Military Personnel was dismissed at the outset.

The provision upheld reads as follows: „The award of the next professional ranks within the same category shall be made in the hierarchical order of ranks, within the number of posts carrying those ranks, as approved by the Minister of Administration and the Interior.”

The case began with Liviu Soare, who asked the courts to order the Ministry of Administration and the Interior to issue an order awarding him the professional rank of chief police inspector with effect from 25 March 2015. The file reached the appeal on points of law before the Bucharest Court of Appeal, eighth division for administrative and tax litigation, and the Constitutional Court was seised by Civil Decision no. 4,925 of 21 October 2016, subsequently rectified by the Interlocutory Order of 15 January 2021.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is the confirmation of the substantive rule. Promotion to the next professional rank, within the same category, is subject to two cumulative requirements: compliance with the hierarchical order of ranks and the existence of a post carrying that rank, within the number approved by the minister.

The second effect is the answer to the allegation of discrimination. The Court holds that the provision contains nothing capable of giving rise to discrimination, because it applies identically to all persons falling within the scope of the rule. Those in the same situation receive the same treatment, and the limitation comes from the number of posts, not from the qualities of the individual.

The third effect concerns the nature of the right. Access to the next professional rank is, the Court says, a feature specific to public office. It is not a right that arises automatically from length of service or from meeting personal criteria; it belongs to the organisation of the career within the institution.

The fourth effect is one of method and explains why the decision matters for old cases. The provision had been repealed by art. I point 11 of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 21/2016. The Court examined it nonetheless, relying on Decision no. 766 of 15 June 2011: constitutional review also extends to provisions whose legal effects continue to be produced after they cease to be in force.

The fifth effect concerns art. 53 of the Constitution, invoked by the author of the plea. The Court holds that reliance on the restriction on the exercise of certain rights cannot be upheld unless a breach of a constitutional provision enshrining fundamental rights or freedoms has been found. Since the underlying situation does not raise any departure from the natural course of social relations, art. 53 does not apply in this case.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

In law, nothing. The decision upholds a provision repealed in 2016 and restates a line of case law already settled by Decision no. 1,570 of 6 December 2011, which had examined the same provisions from the perspective of similar criticisms.

The Court says explicitly that no new elements have arisen such as to warrant a reconsideration of its case law, and that both the operative solution and the reasoning of the earlier decision remain valid. This is, therefore, a reaffirmation rather than a change of position.

The second clarification concerns the subject matter of the plea. The referral order covered art. 19 of Law no. 360/2002 in its entirety, but the Court confined its analysis to para. (1), because the author had raised no criticism of the legislative solutions in paras. (2)-(4). It is a useful illustration of how the subject matter of a plea is delimited by the actual content of the reasoning.

The third clarification is one of timing. The referral to the Court dates from 2016 and was rectified in 2021, while the decision was delivered in February 2026 and published in July 2026. For the author of the plea, the original case has been on hold for almost a decade.

The statute of the police officer has come before the Court again, this time on its disciplinary side. The outcome is once more a rejection: by Decision of the Constitutional Court no. 590/2025, published on 23 September 2026, a police officer investigated over an act committed during the state of emergency may be punished without a disciplinary board.

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