Orban: In order to pass any bill in Parliament there must be agreement inside the coalition

Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Ludovic Orban of the National Liberal Party (PNL) said on Thursday, when asked about recent statements by Prime Minister Florin Citu regarding the slow adoption of laws in Parliament, that in order to pass a bill through Parliament there must be agreement inside the ruling coalition.

"I don't know how slow it is. In Parliament, in order to pass any bill, there must be an agreement inside the coalition because otherwise there is no majority. I will give you an example: the SIIJ law. Things happened like this: we agreed inside coalition on a form that we endorsed, which we adopted in the Chamber of Deputies, after which the minister of justice, without informing us, notified the Venice Commission. Nobody can accuse us of delaying the SIIJ law as long as the decision of the coalition, after these notifications of the Venice Commission, we are waiting for the decision of the Venice Commission, which we understand will be adopted at a plenary meeting of the commission on July 3. As soon as the commission's opinion comes we will convene a meeting of the coalition to establish how to disband the special section for which we will endorse and convene a special session of the Senate in order to take that action," Orban explained.

He said the did not pass because "factors unrelated to parliament" had emerged.

"Once again, we did not procrastinate. If we at the level of the coalition reach an agreement that has passed through the Chamber of Deputies, some factors emerged that were not related to Parliament, but to the executive power," Orban added.

He also referred to a child allowance bill, noting that it is about slow adoption in Parliament.

The governing coalition consists of 3 political parties and there is also a protocol of collaboration with the MPs of the national minority group and in order to pass a bill, an agreement of the coalition is needed, Orban added.

Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Tuesday evening that there are several laws that the Government passed only to get stuck in Parliament and a solution must be found, mentioning that the reform must be done by government ordinances.