Romanian Senate

Senate Senatul
7th Legislature
Type
Type	Upper house of the Parliament of Romania
History
Founded	1864
Leadership
President	Călin Popescu Tăriceanu, ALDE Since 10 March 2014
Structure
Seats	136
Political groups	Government (76)      PSD (67)      ALDE (9) Parties Supporting the Government (9)      UDMR (9) Opposition (51)      PNL (30)      USR (13)      PMP (8)
Committees	15 – The Committee for legal affairs, appointments, discipline, immunities and validations; – Committee on Budget, finance, banking and capital market; – The commission for economy, industry and services; Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development; – The Committee on Foreign Affairs; Committee on public administration, the territory and environmental protection; – The Commission for defense, public order and national security; – Commission for work, family and social protection; Committee for Education, Science, Youth and Sports; – Committee on Public Health; Committee for culture, art and media information in the table; – Commission on Human Rights, religious and minority; The Committee on Equal Opportunities; – Commission for privatization and management of state assets; – Committee on research abuses, corruption and petitions;
Elections
Voting system	1992–2008;2016-present: Closed list, D'Hondt method 2008 – 2016: nominal vote, Mixed member proportional representation
Last election	11 December 2016
Meeting place
Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest
Website
www.senat.ro

Government (76)

Parties Supporting the Government (9)

Opposition (51)

The Senate (Romanian: Senat) is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 136 seats (before the Romanian legislative election, 2016 the number was 176), to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using mixed member proportional representation (at the next elections by closed list party-list proportional representation) in 43 electoral districts (the 41 counties, the city of Bucharest plus 1 constituency for the Romanians living abroad), to serve four-year terms.

The parliamentary history of Romania is seen as beginning in May 1831 in Wallachia, where a constitution called Regulamentul Organic ("Organic Statute") was promulgated by the Russian Empire and adopted. In January 1832 it came into force in Moldavia also. This laid the foundations for the parliamentary institution in the two Romanian principalities. At the Congress of Paris of 1856, Russia gave up to Moldavia the left bank of the mouth of the Danube, including part of Bessarabia, and also gave up its claim to be the protector of Christians in the Ottoman Empire. Moldavia and Wallachia, while remaining under the suzerainty of the Ottomans, were recognized as quasi-independent self-governing principalities under the protection of the other European Powers.