Danubius International Conferences, 5th International Conference on European Integration - Realities and Perspectives

The Structure of the Romanian Parliament after 20 Years of Democracy

Lucian Catrina, Mihail Boldea
##manager.scheduler.building##: B Hall
##manager.scheduler.room##: B12
Date: 2010-05-14 03:30 PM – 06:30 PM
Last modified: 2010-05-12

Abstract

After the recent referendum which approved the initiative to amend the parliamentary structure and to reduce the number of parliamentarians, to maximum 300, the public and professional debate has been radicalized. The bicameralism followers invoke the need of strict specialization of the two rooms or transforming the Senate in a form of representing the regions. Their arguments are historical (the interwar realities), but they forgot that the independence degree of the states in the European Union is limited and the existence of the third parliament (EP) overlaps the structure already established in other times. The running costs of the Romanian State are enormous, therefore the constitutional reform needs adjustments according to new social and communication realities. A new unicameral structure is justified by the need for representation of a larger pattern of citizen in the Parliament, whose expectations may be better liked at the level of district, which covers a wider territorial or problematic area. The plea for unicameralism is according to the spirit of today's people and expectations.