Florin Citu initiates legislative proposal for recognition of electronic sports in Romania

The President of the Senate, Florin Citu, is the initiator of a bill according to which the electronic sport - E-sports is recognized in Romania, Agerpres reports.

"The National Liberal Youth (TNL) together with the representatives of the E-Sports industry - professional players, managers and competition organizers - held a series of workshops in order to formulate a legislative proposal for the recognition of electronic sports in Romania. The bill was drawn up under the coordination of the chair of TNL, Mara Mares, and in close consultation with the representatives of the International E-sports Federation. The chairman of National Liberal Party (PNL), Florin Citu, is the initiator of the legislative proposal drawn up at the level of TNL, this being submitted to the Senate on Wednesday," reads a PNL press release sent on Thursday to AGERPRES.

Citu stated that PNL "is the strongest partner of the private environment and is open to the market and the creative industries".

"The Romanian E-Sports industry needed formal recognition in order to develop and we responded positively, in the most liberal way possible. The most correct regulation is the one required by the market. We submitted a bill for E-Sports at the beginning of the parliamentary session," said the Liberal leader.

The draft law states that "sport also means electronic sport, i.e. the activity carried out in a virtual environment, through the use of a computer or an electronic device, in an organized and competitive way, through individual or team participation, leading to results in competitions of any level".

The electronic sports player (E-player) is any natural person, over the age of 14, who uses his/her intellectual abilities in a virtual environment, in an organized and competitive form and is registered in electronic sports players' registry of Romania, and e-sports competition is an organized and competitive event, public or private, in a virtual environment in which e-sports players participate.

According to the bill, the electronic sports arena (E-sport arena) is a real estate unit or compound arranged for holding electronic sports competitions.