The priorities of the new parliamentary session
The Romanian senators and deputies were convened for the first ordinary session of 2022 on Tuesday, February 1.
Roxana Vasile, 31.01.2022, 13:50
According to the Romanian Constitution, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate meet in two ordinary sessions a year. The first begins in February and cannot go beyond the end of June. The second session begins in September and cannot go beyond the end of December. If urgent situations occur, the two Chambers of Romanias Parliament can be convened in extraordinary sessions, at the request of the President of Romania, of the permanent bureau of each Chamber or of at least one third of the number of deputies or senators.
This week the MPs return to work at the Parliament Palace after the winter holidays. They will focus on draft laws in such areas as justice, health, and the economy. Their priority of the moment is to offset electricity and natural gas bills. Therefore, the MPs will approve a new emergency ordinance recently issued by the Government on a new capping and compensation scheme, given that, in the last few winter months, the bills received by some citizens have been extremely high.
The Senate will debate the document as the first chamber notified, and then it will be submitted to the Chamber of Deputies, as a decision-making body. Also in the field of Energy, the agenda of Parliament could include, in this session, the modification of the Offshore Law, which would unblock the hydrocarbons extraction projects in the Black Sea. In the field of Justice, the Parliaments agenda will include the dismantling of the Section for the Investigation of Offences committed within the Judiciary (SIIJ). Criticized by some, applauded by others, the dismantling of this Section was also requested by Brussels. The current justice minister, Cătălin Predoiu, believes that, by the end of March, the Section will no longer exist.
A challenge for the Social Democratic Party – PSD and the National Liberal Party – PNL, partners in the ruling coalition, is also the drafting of a new salary law, which should equally solve the issue of benefits, so as to avoid cases in which the benefits are equal to the basic income. Finally, the parliamentarians are to also decide on the fate of the Covid certificate. More precisely, a bill that has remained in the debate of the Chamber of Deputies since the past session establishes the obligation to present this certificate at the workplace. If, initially, the bill provided for this obligation only in the case of the medical staff, following changes proposed by senators, the certificate could apply to all categories of employees, with certain exceptions. After many discussions in the Senate, the document was rejected, and the deputies are expected to give the final vote.
Whether in power or in opposition, all political parties represented in the Romanian Parliament have their own projects which they want to include on the agenda, to be debated and voted on. Among them: amending the law on protected areas, increasing salaries in the education system and allowances for children, modifying the law on doctoral theses or the ban on wood export. (LS)
