In brief

  • Parliament goes back to work on Tuesday, 1 September 2026, at 4 p.m. The two chambers convened themselves through separate decisions, but chose the same day and the same hour.
  • This is the second ordinary session of the year. Under Article 66(1) of the Constitution it begins in September and cannot run past the end of December, so it lasts at most 122 days, and the two chambers picked the earliest possible day.
  • The Senate decision is signed on 26 August, the Chamber of Deputies one on 28 August, the day of publication. Deputies learn of the sitting four days before it opens.
Act: Senate Decision no. 18/2026 and Chamber of Deputies Decision no. 15/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 719 of 28 August 2026
Issued: 26 and 28 August 2026

The parliamentary recess ends on Tuesday, 1 September, at 4 p.m., for senators and deputies alike. Two decisions published on the same page of the Official Gazette of Romania convene the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies for the second ordinary session of 2026. They come two days after the last sitting of the summer extraordinary session, the one in which the law closing the Recovery Plan went through both chambers in a single day.

Convening Parliament is not a formality that can be skipped. Under Article 66(3) of the Constitution, the chambers are convened by their presidents, and under paragraph (1) of the same article the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate meet in two ordinary sessions a year: the first begins in February and cannot run past the end of June, the second begins in September and cannot run past the end of December. Without a decision of the president of the chamber, the session does not open.

Each chamber has its own internal basis. The Senate relies on Article 83 of the Rules of Procedure of the Senate, approved by Senate Resolution no. 28/2005, republished, and the Chamber of Deputies on Article 34(a) of the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies, republished. The Constitution does not require them to convene on the same date, nor at the same hour.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is the date. The second ordinary session of 2026 opens on Tuesday, 1 September 2026, at 4 p.m., in both chambers. It is the first working day of the month, that is, the earliest possible day within the window the Constitution opens in September.

The second effect is the maximum length. The session cannot run past the end of December, so the interval covered is 1 September to 31 December 2026, that is 122 days. By choosing the earliest possible day, the two chambers give themselves the longest ordinary session the constitutional text allows.

The third effect is that plenary business becomes possible again under a session regime. Between the close of the extraordinary session at the end of August and 1 September, the chambers have no basis on which to meet in plenary, other than a fresh extraordinary convocation.

The fourth effect is the notice period. The Chamber of Deputies decision is signed on 28 August and published the same day, so deputies receive the official announcement four days before the opening. The Senate decision is signed on 26 August, six days before. Neither of the two sets of rules of procedure relied on imposes, in the text of the decisions, a minimum notice period.

The fifth effect has to do with numbering. The numbers of the two acts, 18 in the Senate and 15 in the Chamber of Deputies, show that the Senate has issued three more decisions than the Chamber this year.

The sixth effect concerns the public calendar. The hour is fixed explicitly, 4 p.m., which means that the opening sittings of the two chambers overlap, while the working programme of each chamber for the period ahead is settled after the opening, not through these decisions.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

What changes is the regime under which Parliament works. Until now, in August, the chambers met in extraordinary session, a regime in which the agenda is limited to what was asked for when they were convened. From 1 September they enter ordinary session, in which the agenda is set under each chamber’s usual procedure.

The investiture vote on the future Government falls in this session too: the candidate designated by the President through Decree no. 770/2026 has ten days to ask Parliament for a vote of confidence, and that vote is taken in the joint sitting of the two chambers.

Nothing changes in law. The two decisions amend no text, repeal nothing and impose no obligation on anyone other than the chambers convening themselves. They are acts organising their own business, published because they open a session.

Compared with the previous convocation, that of the August extraordinary session, the form changes too. An extraordinary convocation comes with an agenda attached, because the agenda defines its scope. An ordinary convocation has no agenda, precisely because an ordinary session is not limited to any particular subject matter.

What has been kept is the habit of convening separately. Although both chambers open at the same hour, they do not issue a joint act; each president signs a decision of their own, on the basis of their own rules of procedure.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The date and the hour are fixed explicitly in both decisions, so there is no room for interpretation as to when the session opens.
  • The two chambers choose the same day and the same hour, which makes it easier to schedule joint business and sittings of the two chambers meeting together.
  • Opening on the first day of September uses the constitutional window in full, so the session runs for the longest time possible.
  • The acts are published in the Official Gazette of Romania before the date of the convocation, so the announcement is public and not merely internal.
  • Each decision states both its constitutional basis and its basis in the rules of procedure, so the power of the president of the chamber can be verified.
  • The wording is short and free of unnecessary references: a single article in each decision.

What remains a problem

  • The Chamber of Deputies decision is signed and published on the same day, four days before the session opens.
  • Neither decision says anything about the date on which the session ends; the limit follows only from the Constitution.
  • The convocation comes with no element of a programme, so the public does not learn from the act what is going to be debated.
  • The two chambers use different wording for the same thing, one active and one passive, even though the act has the same subject matter.
  • The bases in the rules of procedure point to republished texts without naming the publication, which makes verification harder for an ordinary reader.
  • There is no joint act of the two chambers, even though the opening is simultaneous, which leaves the coordination at the level of practice rather than of rule.

Practical advice

  1. If you are following a bill in progress, note the date of 1 September 2026, 4 p.m. From then on, the chambers work in ordinary session, with the agenda set under the usual procedure.
  2. If you have a petition, a request for a hearing or a submission to a committee to lodge, check the committee’s programme after the opening. The convocation decisions do not set the working programme.
  3. For planning an advocacy campaign, take the constitutional window as your benchmark: the session cannot run past the end of December, so there are 122 days from the opening.
  4. If you work with texts under debate, follow the later decisions of the two chambers. The agenda and the programme are set through separate acts, published in the Official Gazette of Romania as well.
  5. Do not confuse an ordinary session with an extraordinary one. The first does not have its agenda limited by the convocation act, the second does, and the difference matters for what can be put up for discussion.
  6. If you need the text of the rules of procedure relied on, look for the republished versions: the Rules of Procedure of the Senate approved by Senate Resolution no. 28/2005 and the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies, both as subsequently amended.

Frequently asked questions

When does the session open?
On Tuesday, 1 September 2026, at 4 p.m., in both chambers. Senate Decision no. 18/2026 and Chamber of Deputies Decision no. 15/2026 give the same day and the same hour.
How long does the second ordinary session run?
The decisions do not say. The limit follows from Article 66(1) of the Constitution: the second ordinary session begins in September and cannot run past the end of December. From 1 September to 31 December there are 122 days.
Why are there two decisions and not one?
Because, under Article 66(3) of the Constitution, each chamber is convened by its own president. The Senate is convened on the basis of Article 83 of the Rules of Procedure of the Senate, and the Chamber of Deputies on the basis of Article 34(a) of its own rules.
What happens to a bill that was not voted on during the extraordinary session?
It stays in the procedure of the chamber where it is and can be taken up again once the ordinary session opens. The convocation decisions refer to no particular bill and do not set the agenda.
What is the difference between an ordinary and an extraordinary session?
Ordinary sessions are the two a year provided for by the Constitution, with fixed cut-off dates. Extraordinary sessions are convened at the request of the President of Romania, of the standing bureau of the chamber or of at least a third of the deputies or senators, and the convocation act defines their scope.
Why is the Chamber of Deputies decision signed on the very day of publication?
The act does not explain. The decision bears the date of 28 August 2026, the same as the edition of the Official Gazette of Romania in which it appears, while the Senate decision is signed on 26 August. Neither of them relies on a minimum notice period.

Editorial analysis

These are two acts as simple as they come, and that is a quality. Each has one article, states its constitutional basis and its basis in the rules of procedure, fixes the day and the hour and says nothing more. They contain no contradictions, no references leading nowhere and no impossible deadlines, and anyone reading them knows exactly what is happening and when. For a convocation act, that is the whole of the requirement.

What does not show when they are read separately appears when they are put side by side and compared with the constitutional text. Both choose 1 September, the first day of the month in which the Constitution allows the opening, and both choose 4 p.m., even though no text obliges them to coordinate. The arithmetical consequence is that the session covers 122 days, the maximum possible within the September to December window. Without saying so, the two chambers have chosen the longest ordinary session they can have.

The second observation concerns the timing of the decisions. The Senate signs its convocation on 26 August, the very day the summer extraordinary session was closing, and the Chamber of Deputies on 28 August, the day of publication. Deputies receive the official announcement four days before the opening, senators six. This is not a question of legality, because the rules of procedure relied on do not appear with a notice period in the text of the decisions, but it is a visible difference of pace between the two chambers, on an act that either of them could have signed weeks earlier.

The third comes from the form of the acts. The Senate writes „Se convoacă Senatul”, the Senate is hereby convened, while the Chamber of Deputies writes „Camera Deputaților este convocată”, the Chamber of Deputies is convened. The same legal operation, performed by the same kind of office holder, on the basis of the same article of the Constitution, is worded in two different ways two lines apart in the Official Gazette of Romania. It changes nothing in law, but it shows that the two sets of rules and the two technical services have never arrived at a common template for the most repetitive act in the work of Parliament.

What should be changed

  • Stating the closing date of the session in the act itself. A line saying that the session cannot run past the end of December would make the decision a complete document, without a detour through the Constitution.
  • A minimum notice period for convening an ordinary session. The dates are known months in advance, and an announcement four days before the opening has no practical justification.
  • A common template for the convocation act in the two chambers. The same operation ought to look the same, especially when both decisions are published on the same page.
  • Naming the publication of the republished versions of the two sets of rules. A reader who wants to check the basis needs the number of the Gazette in which the rules were republished, not just the word „republicat”, republished.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 719 of 28 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 208 KB the act starts on page 2

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.