Romania
Image:Romania Coat of Arms.png This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Romania

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The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:

The Chamber of Deputies
The Senate

[edit] History

Before the communist era (1864 - 1945), the Parliament of Romania was also bicameral, made up of the following two chambers:

The Assembly of Deputies (the lower house)
The Senate (the upper house) (called Corpul Ponderator between 1864, when it was created by Alexandru Ioan Cuza, and 1866, when, according to the new Constitution, its name was changed to Senat)

During the Communist regime, the legislature of Romania was the unicameral Great National Assembly.

The bicameral parliament was re-established in 1990, after the December 1989 revolution which brought about the fall of Communism.

[edit] Functioning

Prior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses. If the text differed, a special commission (comisie de mediere) was formed by deputies and senators, that "negotiated" between the two houses the form of the future law. The report of this commission had to be approved in a joint session of the Parliament. This French procedure proved to be extremely long and inefficient with respect to the expectations of the Romanians towards democracy. After the 2003 referendum, a law still has to be approved by both houses, but in some matters one is "superior" to the other, being called "decision chamber" ("cameră decizională"). This eliminates the annoying process of "negotiation" between the two houses, and keeps the Senate as the upper house and the Chamber as the lower house.

Unlike other bicameral parliaments (Canada, UK), the budget law is approved in a joint session of the Parliament, without debating and modifying it separately (Senate and Chamber).