Premium
The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate begin on Monday the first ordinary parliamentary session of the year.
In the first meeting of each chamber, the new composition of the standing bureaus is chosen, that is the deputy chairs, secretaries and treasurers. The election of the members to the standing bureau follows the proposal of the parliamentary groups, according to their weight, political configuration and the negotiation of the floor leaders.
The lists of candidates for the standing bureaus are submitted to the vote of the Chamber of Deputies, and the Senate, respectively.
Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Marcel Ciolacu has convened the meeting of the standing bureau for Monday, at 13:0hrs, to be followed by a plenary session at 16:00hrs. The Senate has the same schedule.
The parliamentary session begins with the replacement of Senate Chairman Teodor Melescanu, whose election to office has been declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. There are several candidates to the position, with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) arguing that it should be awarded to it again.
PSD interim national chairman Marcel Ciolacu announced that the Social Democrats will support Titus Corlatean, currently the deputy chair of the Senate, to take over the position of interim chairman of the Senate until the Constitutional Court's reasoning for the replacement of Melescanu is revealed. The proposal is also to be voted on by the PSD floor group in the Senate.
Also, PNL national chairman Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, announced that the Liberals will support Alina Gorghiu, currently Vice President of the Senate, for the leadership of the legislative forum.
According to the regulations, the chair of the Senate is elected by secret ballot on ballot papers carrying, in descending order of the size of the parliamentary group, the name and surname of all the candidates proposed by the leaders of the parliamentary groups. Each parliamentary group can make a single proposal. Chairman of the Senate is declared the candidate who met, at the first ballot, the vote of the majority of the senators present.
In this session, the government could assume responsibility before Parliament for other bills.
The Liberals support the fats-tracking of a bill to modify the election of the county council chairs by indirect vote, a bill currently with the Electoral Code Commission. PSD does not want to modify the current system of election county council chairs by direct vote, and holds the majority in the commission.
The lawmakers are also expected to settle on the VAT reduction bill initiated by the leader of the PNL deputies, Florin Roman, who was sent, at the PNL proposal, to the Chamber of Deputies' Committee on Budget and Finance after reaching the plenary sessionwith a proposal for adoption.
Other legislative initiatives that could be discussed in this parliamentary session are: taxation of special pensions - initiated by PSD Senator Eugen Teodorovici and currently with the Chamber of Deputies' Committee on Budget and Finance, as well as postponing doubling children's allowances and amending Emergency Ordinance 114 in the Senate.
