Romania – President presents constitutional amendments

The process of constitutional revision in Romania is coming to a head. It began with the creation in 2008 of a Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Political and Constitutional Regime in Romania. They have a website in Romanian here.

After a very long process, President Traian Băsescu presented the draft bill of the proposed reforms on 31 May. The text is available in Romanian here. It will go to the Legislative Council, which will offer legal advice. It will then go to the Constitutional Council. Finally, it will go to parliament.

Art. 151 of the Constitution states:

(1) The draft or proposal of revision must be adopted by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, by a majority of at least two thirds of the members of each Chamber.
(2) If no agreement can be reached by a mediation procedure, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate shall decide thereupon, in joint session, by the vote of at least three quarters of the number of Deputies and Senators.
(3) The revision shall be final after approval by a referendum held within thirty days at the most from the date of passing the draft or proposal of revision.

This procedure is significant because the main proposal in the bill is the creation of a unicameral legislature with a maximum of 300 deputies. So, will the current set of deputies and, more to the point, senators approve a constitution that is likely to end their parliamentary mandate?

A further amendment is the provision that the prime minister will be able to dismiss a minister but only after prior agreement with the president.

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