Parliament: Online session to approve state of emergency on Romania's territory

Parliament gathers at 12,00hrs on Thursday in a joint online session, devoted to the President Klaus Iohannis' request on the approval of the state of emergency on Romania's territory, established under decree no 195/2020. For the first time, a special debate and remote electronic vote procedure will be used, approved on Monday by the joint Standing Bureaus of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, following the measures established to combat the coronavirus epidemic. To this end, on Wednesday, deputies and senators had a test meeting, simulating the online voting. The heads of the two Chambers, Marcel Ciolacu and Titus Corlatean, will be present in the plenary session hall. The session will be broadcast by live streaming on the internet page of the Chamber of Deputies, and the debates will take place through audio teleconference. MPs will hold their interventions, in a direct telephone connection with the plenary session hall, the speeches going to be broadcast live. The deputies and senators will vote through an electronic application created internally by the specialist departments of the Deputies' Chamber and Senate. The access to the respective web page has been secured by user and password, communicated to each MP by SMS. Each MP will be able to express the voting option by pressing one of the buttons: "YES," "NO," "AB" (abstention) and "I DON'T VOTE". In case the MP doesn't press any of the afore-mentioned buttons, he or she will be counted as absent from the voting. The result of the voting will be displayed immediately on the screen of the electronic device where the streaming is broadcast. Deputies and senators are going to vote this way on Romania's President's request concerning the approval of the state of emergency on Romania's territory for a 30-day period. On Tuesday, the parliamentary committees on defence, justice and health issued joint reports approving the decree of Romania's President. The parliamentary committees on budget and human rights of the two Chambers of Parliament also issued joint favourable opinions. Parliamentarians from the specialist committees made several proposals and observations that were sent to the Government and the head of state. The decision draft that is going to be submitted to voting is for the approval of the measure adopted by Romania's President on the establishment of the state of emergency on the entire territory of Romania. "Based on the provisions of article 93, paragraph (1) of Romania's Constitution, republished, in observance of provisions of article 13 point 16, article 73 and article 74 of the Regulations of joint activities of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of 03.03.1992, republished in the Official Journal, part 1, no 110, of 5 February 2018, with the subsequent additions, taking into account the provisions of article 34 of Government Emergency Ordinance No 1/1999 on the regime of the state of siege and the regime of the state of emergency, approved under Law no 453/2004, with the subsequent modifications and additions, Romania's Parliament adopts the present decision. Unique article - It is hereby approved the state of emergency on the entire territory of Romania, on a 30-day period, since 16 March 2020, as an exceptional measure adopted by Romania's President, Mr. Klaus Werner Iohannis, under Decree no 195/2020, on the establishment of the state of emergency on Romania's territory, published in the Official Journal, Part I, no 212 of 16 March 2020," the decision draft provides. AGERPRES (RO - author: Alina Novaceanu, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Adina Panaitescu, editor: Rodica State)