## Context of the Decision
The decision concerns Article 81 paragraph (4) of Law No. 100/2016 on works and services concessions, declared unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court has previously ruled in the same manner on similar provisions from other normative acts in the field of public procurement, thus consolidating consistent case law in this matter.
## Important Findings
### Violation of the Presumption of Innocence
Excluding an economic operator from the procurement procedure solely because they are the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation, without a final court conviction being pronounced, amounts to a violation of the presumption of innocence.
### Substitution of the Criminal Court
The text allows the contracting authority to assess, in advance, that the operator has committed a serious professional misconduct, substituting itself for the criminal court or competent administrative authority. Such an assessment exceeds the competencies of the contracting authority and affects fundamental procedural guarantees.
### Lack of Individualized Analysis
The measure operates automatically, without individualized analysis of the facts, without evaluation of gravity and without the possibility of remedy, thus being disproportionate and lacking objective foundation. In a rule of law state, any restriction of access to public procedures must be justified, proportionate and subject to control.
### Exceeding the European Framework
The legislative solution exceeds the framework of Directive 2014/23/EU, which conditions mandatory exclusion on the existence of a final conviction and requires reasoned evaluations for cases of optional exclusion. The transposition into domestic law went further than the directive allowed, introducing an automatism incompatible with the principles of European law.
## Why This Decision Matters
The CCR (Constitutional Court of Romania) decision confirms an essential principle: participation in public procurement procedures cannot be conditioned on the absence of any criminal investigation. Contracting authorities must evaluate each situation individually, based on objective, proportionate criteria and in accordance with constitutional guarantees. For economic operators, this means concrete protection against arbitrary exclusions.