Czech Constitutional Court rejects lawmakers' complaint over cancelled foreign trip

The Czech Constitutional Court has dismissed a complaint filed by MPs Adriana Hochelová (STAN) and Irena Frčíková Konečná (Piráti), who had challenged a decision by the Chamber of Deputies' Organisational Committee to cancel their foreign trip. According to the court, refusing to approve a specific overseas trip does not violate their constitutional right to exercise their parliamentary duties unhindered.

The Committee on European Affairs had proposed sending both deputies abroad as part of a delegation, but the Organisational Committee, which holds authority over such decisions, declined to approve the trip. The two women then turned to the Constitutional Court, asking it to determine whether their rights had been violated. It has now emerged that the ruling was actually issued back in early July.

In the decision, signed by Constitutional Court Chairman Josef Baxa, the judges stated: "It cannot be said that, by being unable to take part in this foreign delegation, the complainants were prevented from carrying out their duties as members of the Committee on European Affairs or from participating in the exercise of its legal powers."

At the same time, the court rejected the position of Chamber of Deputies Speaker Tomio Okamura (SPD), who had argued that the Constitutional Court has no authority to review decisions of the Organisational Committee, since such matters fall under parliamentary autonomy, and who had further claimed that the deputies had no right to file such a complaint in the first place. The court dismissed both of Okamura's arguments, emphasising that its jurisdiction over constitutional complaints extends to reviewing virtually any final decision or action taken by public authorities.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz