Two or three working weeks in stores follow

Traders will have two or three working weeks in the next three weeks, as the Constitutional Court's decision to lift it will be announced before MPs debate its extension.

The Constitutional Court announced today that it has submitted to the "Official Gazette" a decision to repeal Article 35a of the Law on Internal Trade, which prohibited the operation of shops on Sundays and on public and other holidays.

The current Law on the Publication of Regulations and Other Acts states that "regulations and other acts submitted to a Public Institution shall be published, as a rule, in the first subsequent issue of the Official Gazette, and no later than 10 days from the date of submission."

This means that the "Official Gazette" can publish the decision today, or by the end of next week at the latest. The Constitutional Court's decision enters into force on the day of publication, so if the decision were published today, traders would be able to work on Sunday, February 8. If it were published during the following week, the first working week for traders would be February 15.

A group of MPs from the ruling coalition have scheduled an extraordinary session of the Parliament for February 16th, at which they will vote again on the adoption of almost the same Article 35a. If the new-old article of the law were to be adopted again that day, it would still take several days for the law to be signed by the President of the country, and then sent to the "Official Gazette" for publication. This amendment to the law, which is in the parliamentary procedure, states that it will enter into force on the eighth day after its publication in the "Official Gazette".

If the law were adopted on February 16th and signed and published in the Official Gazette on the same day, it would enter into force on February 26th at the earliest, which means that we would have safe working weeks on February 15th and 22nd, and perhaps even the 8th if the decision is announced today.