8/22/2019 Parliament of Roumania PP

1/10

8/22/2019 Parliament of Roumania PP

2/10

8/22/2019 Parliament of Roumania PP

3/10

Electoral system

The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are elected in constituencies, by universal,equal, direct, secret, and freely expressed suffrage, on the basis of a list system andindependent candidatures, according to the principle of proportional representation.

The option for an identical election system of the two Chambers of Parliament confersthem the same legitimacy, as both of them are the expression of the will of the sameelectoral body.

Structure of the Parliament

The Parliament of Romania has a bicameral structure, and is formed of the Chamberof Deputies and the Senate, appellations taken over from Romanian constitutionaltraditions. The Romanian bicameral system is substantiated by the necessity of ensuringa balance in the exercise of the parliamentary functions, by the requirement to debatethoroughly the laws adopted, and to temper the authoritarian or extremist tendencies ofa Chamber, in the appreciation of a state of fact, and in the selection of the decisional

version.The internal structures of the two Chambers of Parliament consist of the Presidents ofthe Chambers, the Standing Bureaux, the parliamentary committees, andthe parliamentary groups.

http://www.senat.ro/http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b1http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b1http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b2http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b3http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b4http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b4http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b3http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b2http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b2http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b1http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?den=introp2-b1http://www.senat.ro/

8/22/2019 Parliament of Roumania PP

4/10

Chamber of Deputies Senate

8/22/2019 Parliament of Roumania PP

5/10

Presidents of the Chambers

The Presidents of the two Chambers are elected for the duration of the Chambers'mandate, by secret vote, in one or more ballot rounds.

The Standing Orders of the Chambers establish certain duties for the Presidents of theChambers, which may be exercised by the vice-chairmen of the Standing Bureaux.

Standing Bureaux

Each Chamber of Parliament elects a Standing Bureau composed of a chairman,vice-chairmen, secretaries and quaestors. The President of the Chamber of Deputies and

the President of the Senate are at the same time chairmen of the two Standing Bureaux.

Parliamentary committees

The parliamentary committees are working bodies of the Chambers of Parliament,playing an important part in the preparation of the proceedings, as well as in the exercise

of the parliamentary functions, particularly of the legislative and control ones.

Parliamentary groups

The Deputies and Senators may organize themselves into parliamentary groupsaccording to the standing orders of each Chamber.

8/22/2019 Parliament of Roumania PP

6/10

The mandate of the Deputies and of the Senators

Deputies and Senators are elected by universal, equal, direct, secret, and freely expressedvote for a mandate of 4 years. The mandate may be extended by an organic law, in case of war orcatastrophe.

Deputies and Senators take up the exercise of their mandate on the day of the statutoryconvention of the Chamber they belong to, on condition of their validation, and the quality ofDeputy or Senator ceases on the day of the statutory convention of the newly elected Chambers, orin case of resignation, of loss of the electoral rights, of incompatibility, or of demise. The newlyelected Parliament meets at the convocation of the President of Romania, within not more thantwenty days after election day.

Parliamentary immunity

Deputies and Senators benefit by parliamentary immunity, the purpose of which is toensure their protection against abusive judicial prosecution, and the guarantee of their freedom ofthought and action.

Deputies and Senators benefit by immunity after the day of the respective Chamber'sstatutory meeting, on condition that their mandate be validated and extended over the wholeduration of the parliamentary mandate.

By reason of parliamentary immunity, no Senator or Deputy may be detained, arrested,searched or indicated for criminal or contraventional offences without the preliminary assent of theChamber to which he belongs, after his or her hearing.

During the sessions, the Chambers of Parliament work in sittings held in keeping withtheir Standing Orders. As to the sittings, it must be considered that the Constitution provides for

the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate to sit separately, and occasionally in joint sittings.

8/22/2019 Parliament of Roumania PP

7/10

Voting procedure:On the questions of debate, theChambers of Parliamnt decide byvote, which may be open or secret.The mode of voting is established

for each subject of debate in part,except the case an open or a secretvote is deliberately required bythe standing orders of theChambers.

The vote is always personal. Theopen vote is expressed publicly byshow of hands, roll call, standingup, or by electronic devices.

8/22/2019 Parliament of Roumania PP

8/10

Functions of the Parliament

The functions of the Parliament of Romania proceed from its quality of supreme representative body of theRomanian people and from that of single legislative authority of the country. The main functions of theParliament of Romania are:

Passing of Laws

The passing of laws is the first and foremost power of Parliament. It consists in the elaboration of uridical normsfor the regulation of social relations, conformable to the legislative procedure.

Legislative Initiative

The Legislative initiative belongs to the Government, to Deputies and Senators as well as to a number of at least250,000 citizens entitled to vote.

Debates in Parliamentary Committees

Draft bills or legislative proposals are submitted for debate to the Chamber of Deputies or to the Senate together

with the advisory opinion of the Legislative Council. They are registered in the order of their presentation. Afterthey have been received and registered, the standing bureau will distribute them to the parliamentarians andsend them to the standing committees for examination in the substance and formulation of an advisory opinion.

Debates in Plenum

The development of the legislative procedure in the plenum of the Chambers involves a general debate on thedraft bill or of the legislative proposal, and a debate by articles. The general debate is preceded by a presentationby the initiator or his representative, of the motives which have led to the promotion of the legislative initiative.

Promulgation of the lawThe laws adopted by the two Chambers of Parliament with identical texts are sent for promulgation to thePresident of Romania. The promulgation is made within 20 days at the most after its reception. Beforepromulgation, the President may ask Parliament, once only, to re-examine the law within not more than 20 daysafter the law was received for promulgation.

Coming into Force of the Law

The law comes into force on the day of its publication in the Monitorul Oficial (Official Gazette of Romania), or

at the date provided in its text, which date may not be previous to the publication.

8/22/2019 Parliament of Roumania PP

9/10

Acts of the Parliament

According to Article 64 under the Constitution, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate pass laws,decisions, and motions, all these being juridical acts. Parliament and each Chamber in part mayalso adopt exclusively political acts such as declarations, appeals, messages, and others.

LAWS are normative acts adopted by Parliament according to the legislative procedure. In thehierarchy of the juridical acts issued by Parliament, laws stand on a position superior to decisionsand motions. It is supreme in relation to the other normative acts, which have to be conformable toits dispositions.

Laws emmanate only from Parliament, the successive a proval of draft bills or oflegislative proposals by each of the two Chambers being necessary, except the law on the state

budget and the law on the budget of the state social insurance, which are debated and adopted in ajoint sitting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

DECISIONS are adopted by each Chamber separately or in a joint sitting. They may have anormative or an individual character. As compared with laws, decisions have an inferior juridicalforce.

MOTIONS are individual juridical acts, expressing the Members of Parliament's opinion on orattitude towards a certain question of internal or external policy. By their very nature, motionsexpress an attitude towards the Government, the most important of them being the motion ofcensure, which may lead to the dismissal of the Government.

8/22/2019 Parliament of Roumania PP

10/10