Government of Romania

Logo of the Government of Romania

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The Government of Romania (Romanian: Guvernul României) forms one half of the country's executive branch (the other half being the President). It is headed by the Prime-Minister, and consists of the Ministries, various subordinated institutions and agencies, and the 42 Prefectures. The seat of the Romanian Government is at Victoria Palace in Bucharest.

Overview

Investiture

The procedure of investing a new Government is initiated by the President, who designates a candidate to the office of Prime Minister after consulting the party which holds a majority of seats in Parliament. If no such majority exists, the President consults all the parties represented in Parliament. Once nominated, the candidate establishes a list of members and a government platform; this is to be done in 10 days. The 10-day interval is not a strict deadline, rather it represents the time period deemed optimal to establish a competent legal Government. The expiry of this interval allows the President to revoke the candidate and designate a new one, though this is not mandatory.

Once the candidate has formed a list and a program, he can ask for the Parliament's vote of confidence. The Parliament debates upon the matter in joint sitting, and can only reject proposals twice in a span of 60 days. If Parliament fails to approve a candidate within this time period, the President gains the right to dissolve it.

Should the Parliament grant its vote of confidence, the proposed political platform becomes official, and the full list of Government must be confirmed by the President. The Government is then sworn in and begins its term.

Structure

The Constitution of Romania provides for two basic types of members, namely ministers (miniştri) and the Prime Minister (primul-ministru). The statute of additional members is established by organic law. Current legislation establishes the positions of deputy prime minister (viceprim-ministru), state minister (ministru de stat) and ministers delegated with special tasks (miniştri delegaţi cu însărcinări speciale). "State minister" is a senior position, the holder of which coordinates the activity of various ministries under the direction of the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister is the leader of Government and coordinates its activity. The working apparatus of the Government consists of the Prime-Minister's office, the General Secretariat of the Government and other departments and structures established through Government Decisions.

The Prime Minister's office itself consists of the Prime Minister's Cabinet, the body of his state-secretaries and state-counselors, and the Prime Minister's Registry.

Role

The role of the Government is sanctioned by the Constitution and by relevant laws. The Government exercises "general leadership of the public administration", elaborates strategies to implement the government platform, exercises legislative initiative, negotiates international treaties, represents the Romanian state both internally and externally, names prefects and presents information and documents to the Chambers of Parliament as requested.

Relations with the Parliament

The Government answers exclusively to Parliament, both through compulsory information of Parliament and through questions, interpellations and inquiry committees. A Chamber of Parliament (Chamber of Deputies or Senate) may carry a simple motion with regards to the subject matter of an interpellation. In extreme cases, the Parliament may vote a motion of censure, withdrawing its confidence and forcing the Government to resign.

Through a special habilitation law, the Government may be enabled to issue ordinances (ordonanţe), which have the same legal force as ordinary laws. Ordinances are a form of legislative delegation, and may require approval in Parliament if the habilitation law states so. In extraordinary situations, in which regulation cannot be postponed, the Government may issue emergency ordinances (ordonanţe de urgenţă), which do not require habilitation laws but must be subjected to approval in Parliament before coming into force.

The Cabinet

Main article: Cabinet of Romania

Ministry		Cabinet office	Incumbent	Since	Party
	Prime Minister		Victor Ponta	7 May 2012	PSD
	Ministry of Public Finance	Deputy Prime-Minister, Minister of Public Finance	Florin Georgescu	7 May 2012	Ind.
	Ministry of Foreign Affairs	Minister of Foreign Affairs	Titus Corlăţean	6 August 2012	PSD
	Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development	Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development	Daniel Constantin	7 May 2012	PC
	Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business Environment	Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business Environment	Daniel Chiţoiu	7 May 2012	PNL
		Minister Delegate for the Business Environment	Mihai Voicu	6 August 2012	PNL
	Ministry of Administration and Interior	Minister of Administration and Interior	Mircea Duşa	6 August 2012	PSD
		Minister Delegate for Administration	Radu Stroe	6 August 2012	PNL
	Ministry of National Defense	Minister of National Defense	Corneliu Dobriţoiu	7 May 2012	PNL
	Ministry of Justice	Minister of Justice	Mona Pivniceru	23 August 2012	Ind.
	Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection	Minister of Labor, Family and Social Protection	Mariana Câmpeanu	7 May 2012	PNL
		Minister Delegate for Social Dialog	Liviu Pop	7 May 2012	Ind.
	Ministry of Education, Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport	Minister of Education, Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport	Ecaterina Andronescu	2 June 2012	PSD
	Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure	Minister of Transport and Infrastructure	Ovidiu Silaghi	7 May 2012	PNL
	Ministry of Health	Minister of Health	Raed Arafat	7 November 2012	Ind.
	Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism	Minister of Regional Development and Tourism	Eduard Hellvig	7 May 2012	PNL
	Ministry of Environment and Forests	Minister of Environment and Forests	Rovana Plumb	7 May 2012	PSD
	Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony	Minister of Culture and National Patrimony	Puiu Hașotti	25 June 2012	PNL
	Ministry of Communications and Information Society	Minister of Communications and Information Society	Dan Nica	7 May 2012	PSD
	Ministry of European Affairs	Minister of European Affairs	Leonard Orban	20 September 2011	Ind.
		Minister Delegate for Liaison with Parliament	Dan Șova	6 August 2012	PSD

See also

• List of institutions subordinated to the Government of Romania

External links

• The Government of Romania
• The President of Romania
• Senate of Romania
• Chamber of Deputies of Romania
• Supreme Court of Romania