Parliamentarians off for holiday leaving over 400 laws pending

The first session of the Romanian Parliament for the year ended with the vote for over 400 legislative bills delayed. Specialized committees forgot to deliver the reports of over 137 bills for the Senate and 279 bills for the House of Deputies. Thus, legislative regulations regarding the approval deadlines could not be applied. Even though there are some commissions with laws pending from 2004, parliamentarians had no problem taking a break to involve in this year’s June local elections.

In both chambers of the Parliament the commissions lagging behind are the judicial ones: in the Chamber of Deputies there are some 60 files unresolved while in the Senate, 51. The oldest deadline is that regarding the Civil Code, dating October 2004. However, there are other bills buried on the commission desks.

What’s more, parliamentary regulations do not provide any sanctions for those who manage to block the legislative process. House of Deputies secretary Ioan Munteanu declared for HotNews.ro that the presidents of the commissions have been warned by their colleagues to submit in time their reports. However, he added, they have no authority whatsoever.