Chamber of Deputies (Romania)

Chamber of Deputies Camera Deputaților
7th Legislature
Type
Type	Lower house of the Parliament of Romania
History
Founded	1862
Leadership
President	Valeriu Zgonea, PSD Since 3 July 2012
Structure
Seats	412
Political groups	PSD+UNPR 180      PNL 117      ALDE 24      UDMR 17      PND 12      Unaffiliated 15      National minorities 17      Vacant 30
Elections
Voting system	1992 – 2008: Closed list, D'Hondt method since 2008: nominal vote, Mixed member proportional representation
Last election	9 December 2012
Meeting place
Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest
Website
cameradeputatilor.ro

The Chamber of Deputies (Romanian: Camera Deputaților) is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 412 seats (as of 9 December 2012, after the next legislative elections 330), to which deputies were elected by direct popular vote in single-member electoral districts using mixed member proportional representation (at the next elections using closed list party-list proportional representation) to serve four-year terms. Additionally, the organisation of each national minority is entitled to a seat in the Chamber (under the limitation that a national minority is to be represented by one organisation only).

Leadership and structure

Standing Bureau

Main article: Standing Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania

The (Romanian: Biroul Permanent) is the body elected by the deputies that rules the Chamber. Its President is the President of the Chamber, and he/she is elected for a whole legislature (usually four years). All the other members are elected at the beginning of each parliamentary session.

There is one President, and four of each: Vicepresidents, Quaestors and Secretaries. The current composition is listed below.

Function	Name	Group	Incumbent since
President	Roberta Anastase	PD-L	December 2008
Vice-Presidents	Ioan Oltean	PD-L	December 2008
	Adrian Năstase	PSD	December 2008
	Valeriu Zgonea	PSD	September 2010
	Marian Sârbu	UNPR	February 2011
Secretaries	Dumitru Pardău	PD-L	December 2008
	Niculae Mircovici	Minorities	February 2011
	Georgian Pop	PSD	September 2010
	Mihai Voicu	PNL	December 2008
Quaestors	Gheorghe Albu	PD-L	December 2008
	Nicolae Bănicioiu	PSD	December 2008
	Dan Motreanu	PNL + PC	December 2008
	Dénes Seres	UDMR	September 2009

Committees of the Chamber

Standing committees and current leadership are listed below.

Committee	President	Group	Incumbent since
Committee for Economic Policy, Reform, and Privatization	Horia Grama	PSD	17 Feb. 2015
Committee for Budget, Finance, and, Banks	Viorel Ştefan	PSD	17 Sep. 2014
Committee for Industries and Services	Iulian Iancu	PSD
Committee for Industries and Services	Iulian Iancu	PSD
Committee for Transport and Infrastructure	Mihai Lupu	PNL	10 Feb. 2014
Committee for Agriculture, Forestry, Food Industry and Specific Services	Nini Săpunaru	PNL	9 Sep. 2010
Committee for Human Rights, Cults and National Minorities Issues	Nicolae Păun	Minorities
Committee for Public Administration and Territorial Planning	Marin Almăjanu	PNL
Environment and Ecological Balance	Carmen Moldovan	PSD	5 Feb. 2014
Committee for Labour and Social Protection	Adrian Solomon	PSD	17 Feb. 2015
Committee for Health and Family	Florin-Corneliu Buicu	PSD	17 Feb. 2015
Committee for Education, Science, Youth, and Sport	Adrian-Nicolae Diaconu	PSD	3 Mar. 2015
Committee for Culture, Arts, Mass Information Means	Gigel-Sorinel Ştirbu	PNL	4 Mar. 2014
Committee for Legal Matters, Discipline, and Immunities	Liviu-Bogdan Ciucă	PC-PLR
Committee for Defense, Public Order, and National Security	Ion Mocioalcă	PSD
Committee for Foreign Policy	László Borbély	UDMR
Committee for the Investigation of Abuses, Corrupt Practices, and for Petitions	Mircea Man	PNL	3 Apr. 2013
Committee for Standing Orders	Gheorghe Emacu	PSD	27 Dec. 2013
Committee for Information Technology and Communications	Daniel Vasile Oajdea	DP	10 Mar. 2015
Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men	Ştefan-Petru Dalca	DP
Committee for Romanian Communities Living Abroad	Mircea Lubanovici	PNL	10 Sep. 2013
Committee for European Affairs	Ana Birchall	PSD	3 Feb. 2015

Party composition

2008–2012

Main article: 2008 - present legislature of the Romanian Parliament

 Seats in the Chamber of Deputies of Romania, 6th legislature

Parliamentary Group		Election seating		Lost	Won	Present
		Seats	%			Seats	%
	Democratic Liberal Party	115	34.43%	29	12	106	37.24%
	Social Democratic Party	114	34.13%	29	2	91	28.53%
	National Liberal Party	65	19.46%	21	6	56	16.22%
	Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania	22	6.59%	2	0	20	6.61%
	Ethnic minorities parties	18	5.39%	2	0	16	5.41%
	National Union for the Progress of Romania	—	—	16	16	12	6.01%
	Deputies without a group					8	—
	Vacant seats					25	—
Total		334	100	—		334	100

2004–2008

Main article: 2004 - 2008 legislature of the Romanian Parliament

In Romania's 2004 legislative election, held on 28 November, no party won an outright majority. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) won the largest number of seats but is currently in opposition because the Justice and Truth Alliance, the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, the Romanian Humanist Party(which later became the Conservative Party), and the National Minorities formed a governing coalition, giving it 177 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (47.9% of the total). The Conservative Party withdrew in December 2006, meaning that the government lost the majority in the Chamber of Deputies. In April 2007 the liberal prime-minister, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, dismissed the Democratic Party ministers from the government and formed a minority government with the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, marking the end of the Justice and Truth Alliance.

During the 2004–2008 legislature, the president of the Chamber of Deputies was Bogdan Olteanu from the National Liberal Party, who was elected on 20 March 2006, after the Chamber's former president, Adrian Năstase, was forced by his own party (the Social Democratic Party, PSD) to step down amidst allegations of corruption.

After the 2004 elections, several deputies from the PSD switched to other parties (including the governing Justice and Truth Alliance) or became independents, with the total number of PSD seats being reduced from 113 to 105. The number of Justice and Truth Alliance deputies also increased from 112 to 118, making it the largest formation in parliament as of October 2006. This changed again in December 2006, leaving the PSD with 107 seats and the Justice and Truth Alliance with 101. Since April 2007 the Justice and Truth Alliance has split leaving the two former members with 51 respectively 50 members. Deputies elected to the European Parliament in the 2007 election resigned, thus reducing the number of deputies to 314 as of 4 December 2007.

A new election was held in 2008. The table below gives the state of play before the 2008 election; parties in bold were part of the governing coalition. That coalition was tacitly supported by the PSD.

Party		% of seats	Seats
	Social Democratic Party	32.31	105
	Democratic Liberal Party	20.62	67
	National Liberal Party	18.15	59
	Greater Romania Party	6.77	22
	Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania	6.77	22
	Conservative Party	5.85	19
	National Minorities	5.54	18
	Independents	4.00	13
Total		100	325

2000–2004

Elections to the Chamber of Deputies were held on 26 November 2000, in which the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSD) won plurality. The governing majority was formed from the PSD and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), which, with 182 members, made up 54.8% of seats. The president of the Chamber of Deputies during this period was Valer Dorneanu, who was elected on 15 December 2000. The distribution of seats was as follows:

Party	% of seats	Seats
PSD	44.93	155
Greater Romania Party	24.35	84
Democratic Party	8.99	31
National Liberal Party	8.70	30
Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania	7.83	27
National Minorities	5.22	18
Total	100	332

External links

• Official website