Chamber of Deputies (Romania)


The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 329 seats to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote using party-list proportional representation to serve four-year terms. Additionally, the organisation of each national minority is entitled to a seat in the Chamber.

Leadership and structure

Standing Bureau

The 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. 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.
FunctionNameGroupIncumbent since
PresidentMarcel CiolacuPSDMay 2019
Vice-PresidentsFlorin IordachePSD
Vice-PresidentsCarmen-Ileana MihălcescuPSD
Vice-PresidentsMarilen-Gabriel PirteaPNL
Vice-PresidentsVlad-Emanuel DuruşUSR
SecretariesLia Olguța VasilescuPSD
SecretariesCristian BuicanPNL
SecretariesDaniel ConstantinPRO
SecretariesDragoş Gabriel ZisopolMinorities
QuaestorsCătălin-Marian RădulescuPSD
QuaestorsDénes SeresUDMR
QuaestorsLaurenţiu-Dan LeoreanuPNL
QuaestorsAndrei Dominic GereaALDE

Committees of the Chamber

Standing committees and current leadership are listed below.
CommitteePresidentGroupIncumbent since
Committee for Economic Policy, Reform, and PrivatizationHoria GramaPSD17 Feb. 2015
Committee for Budget, Finance, and, BanksViorel ȘtefanPSD17 Sep. 2014
Committee for Industries and ServicesIulian IancuPSD
Committee for Industries and ServicesIulian IancuPSD
Committee for Transport and InfrastructureMihai LupuPNL10 Feb. 2014
Committee for Agriculture, Forestry, Food Industry and Specific ServicesNini SăpunaruPNL9 Sep. 2010
Committee for Human Rights, Cults and National Minorities IssuesNicolae PăunMinorities
Committee for Public Administration and Territorial PlanningMarin AlmăjanuPNL
Environment and Ecological BalanceCarmen MoldovanPSD5 Feb. 2014
Committee for Labour and Social ProtectionAdrian SolomonPSD17 Feb. 2015
Committee for Health and FamilyFlorin-Corneliu BuicuPSD17 Feb. 2015
Committee for Education, Science, Youth, and SportAdrian-Nicolae DiaconuPSD3 Mar. 2015
Committee for Culture, Arts, Mass Information MeansGigel-Sorinel ȘtirbuPNL4 Mar. 2014
Committee for Legal Matters, Discipline, and ImmunitiesLiviu-Bogdan CiucăPC-PLR
Committee for Defense, Public Order, and National SecurityIon MocioalcăPSD
Committee for Foreign PolicyLászló BorbélyUDMR
Committee for the Investigation of Abuses, Corrupt Practices, and for PetitionsMircea ManPNL3 Apr. 2013
Committee for Standing OrdersGheorghe EmacuPSD27 Dec. 2013
Committee for Information Technology and CommunicationsDaniel Vasile OajdeaDP10 Mar. 2015
Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and MenȘtefan-Petru DalcaDP
Committee for Romanian Communities Living AbroadMircea LubanoviciPNL10 Sep. 2013
Committee for European AffairsAna BirchallPSD3 Feb. 2015

Party composition

2016–2020

Seats in the Chamber of Deputies of Romania
! style="text-align:center;" colspan=2 rowspan=2 | Party
! style="text-align:center;" colspan=2 | Election seating
! style="text-align:center;" rowspan=2 | Lost
! style="text-align:center;" rowspan=2 | Won
! style="text-align:center;" colspan=2 | Present seating
! style="text-align:center;" | Seats
! style="text-align:center;" | %
! style="text-align:center;" | Seats
! style="text-align:center;" | %
! align=left colspan=2|Total
! 329
! 100
! colspan=2 | —
! 329
! 100

2008–2012

2004–2008

In Romania's 2004 legislative election, held on 28 November, no party won an outright majority. The Social Democratic Party 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, and the National Minorities formed a governing coalition, giving it 177 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. 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 to step down amidst allegations of corruption.
After the 2004 elections, several deputies from the PSD switched to other parties 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.

2000–2004

Elections to the Chamber of Deputies were held on 26 November 2000, in which the Social Democratic Party of Romania won plurality. The governing majority was formed from the PSD and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, 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: