Senate legislative activity in the first session this year was marked by the fragility of the coalition government held a majority in theHouse, passage of senators from one party to another, making a day to lose power and to regain the majority after several hours.
At the beginning of the session, election of new leadership of this Chamber was delayed a week because of disagreements among parliamentary groups on the distribution functions of the Standing Bureau. This unprecedented situation in the Senate was determined by the Constitutional Court, which established the independent group has the right to leadership positions in the legislative chambers, so the algorithm had to renegotiate the distribution of these functions was set at the start of the 2008 -2012.
Postponing made the first week of the session is intended only specialized parliamentary committees meetings without senators to meet in plenary.
Following negotiations between the leaders of parliamentary groups in the Senate, a majority power in the management of the legislative chambers and 7 of the 13 positions of the Standing Bureau. Senate leaders of groups have established that, from now on at the beginning of each parliamentary session shall be reconsidered algorithm allocation of functions in the Bureau and Standing Committees, "according to the reality of the day," as announced Geoana.
Another success of the independent group composed of members UNPR, was appointed as a member of Serban Mihailescu the Committee on Rules, given that his parliamentary group tried for six months to determine this. UNPR has obtained, among other things, the presidency of a newly established committee, the Committee on European Affairs, to be voted president Independent Senator Vasile Nedelcu.
Activity Senate session just ended was disrupted for several months, of arguments, delays and power senators boycott by members of the election of the Superior Council of Magistrates, judges and representatives of civil society. In fact, disputes were caused by the appointment of two representatives of civil society in SCM. Finally, this issue has been resolved by the end of the session, after President Traian Basescu criticized the Senate to block appointments in SCM.
The Senate adopted the first half of this year, a number of important legislation and initiatives, including proposed government bill introducing co-payment system for certain medical services, the bill which provides international adoption Romanian children if the adopter or one spouse is a Romanian citizen adoptive family, the project that murder, first degree murder and aggravated murder offenses become indefeasible.
A legislative proposal, initiated by independent Senator Alan Campanu, Serioja Chivu, Cesar Magureanu and Vasile Nedelcu, which was tacitly adopted by the Senate and has sparked much controversy requirement for candidates to provide a public function, when submitting your application, and medical certificate attesting that they have chronic physical and mental, and once elected to undergo psychological and psychiatric control annually.
Taking advantage of the most fragile in the Senate, lawmakers USL managed several times to reject draft laws, ordinances and ordinance of the Government, some legislative priorities of the Government.
In fact, the last meeting of Senate leadership, because of runoff recorded vote, members of the Permanent Bureau could not take a decision on the route you must follow the constitutional revision draft, submitted to both Houses by President Traian Basescu .
Because the proposal made by Senators power project to be debated by the Senate in parallel with the debate in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senators, USL, which argued that the debate should be normative act successively in the two rooms did not meet the vote majority, the decision was postponed for the session which will begin in the fall.
During the spring session in the legislative chamber were submitted and discussed two simple motions, "Agriculture bankrupt, but politicized" and "Romania's foreign policy is not the LDP," both of which rejected the vote in plenary.
In this session, the number of Senate standing committees increased to eighteen, through the establishment of two new committees, the Commission for Relations with Romanians everywhere and the Committee on European Affairs.
President of the Senate, Geoana, announced at the end of the session, when he presented the balance of activity that will become mandatory in the presence of the autumn session, "with some regularity," the prime minister and the "key ministers" in the Senate, according to Strategy for improvement Senate. The strategy was initiated by Geoana, which, moreover, often criticized for poor communication between executive and legislature. On the other hand, Geoana criticized, during the presentation of balance-end session, the "disproportion" between the current bills or ordinances adopted by the Chamber of Senators and legislative initiatives and deputies are voted and expressed hope that thenext parliamentary session to change this situation.
