In brief

  • The President of the Senate has called the chamber into an extraordinary session between 24 and 26 August 2026, with committee work on all three days and plenary sittings on Monday and Wednesday.
  • The agenda includes two laws sent back by the President of Romania for re-examination: the one on immediate intervention against brown bear attacks and the one on protected natural areas.
  • The Senate is also due to approve the extension to 60 days of the debate deadline for four initiatives, three of which bear directly on tax legislation.
Act: Senate Decision no. 15/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 697 of 21 August 2026
Issued: 21 August 2026

The Senate is not going on holiday until the ordinary session in September: it meets three days in a row, between 24 and 26 August 2026, to clear a pile of laws left hanging. Decision no. 15 of the President of the Senate, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 697 of 21 August 2026, convenes the plenary in extraordinary session and attaches the agenda as an annex. This is not a calendar formality: two of the laws on the list have already been adopted once and have come back from the presidential palace, while another four are about to be given two more months of debate. Parliament has worked at this pace before on other files left behind, as it did with the approval, two years on, of the ordinance combining the 2024 elections.

The legal basis for the convening is Article 66(2) and (3) of the Constitution, which allows the chambers to meet in extraordinary session at the request of the Standing Bureau, of one third of the number of deputies or senators, or of the President of Romania, together with Article 84 of the Senate’s Rules of Procedure. The decision has a single article: the Senate is convened for the period 24 to 26 August 2026, and the draft agenda and the working programme are set out in the annex.

The programme is split by day. On Monday 24 August the standing committees work on opinions and reports, at the Senate’s premises and online, and from 3 p.m. the plenary opens, with debate and a final vote, until the agenda is exhausted. On Tuesday 25 August the work takes place in committees only. On Wednesday 26 August the committees meet again in the morning, and from 12 noon comes the second plenary sitting, again with a final vote.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is the opening of the session itself. Outside the ordinary sessions, which run from February to June and from September to December, the Senate cannot vote. The decision creates the legal framework for the two plenary days and for the final votes of 24 and 26 August.

The second effect concerns the four initiatives for which the deadline is to be extended to 60 days. They are the proposal amending Emergency Ordinance no. 170/2020 on actions for damages for infringements of competition law, together with Competition Law no. 21/1996 (L339/26.05.2026), two proposals supplementing the Tax Code (L348/2.06.2026, which also touches Article LVIII of Emergency Ordinance no. 115/2023, and L352/2.06.2026, on Article 342(9)) and a proposal supplementing Law no. 296/2023 on fiscal and budgetary measures (L355/2.06.2026). The extension means that none of them will be tacitly adopted in the period ahead.

The third effect concerns the two laws sent back by the President of Romania. The law supplementing Article 56^1 of Emergency Ordinance no. 57/2007 on the regime of protected natural areas, which also amends Article 5(1) of Law no. 292/2018 on environmental impact assessment (L743/21.11.2022), and the law amending Emergency Ordinance no. 81/2021 on methods of immediate intervention against brown bear attacks (L43/3.02.2026) both return to debate. Re-examination at the President’s request obliges Parliament to discuss the text again, but does not oblige it to change it.

The fourth effect is the authorisation of a parliamentary inquiry. Point 2 on the agenda is the draft resolution approving the conduct of an inquiry by a standing committee, which was in fact adopted on that same 24 August through Senate Resolution no. 113/2026.

The fifth effect is one of agenda. The list also includes the proposal on hydrogen from renewable sources (L453/27.07.2026), which touches Law no. 237/2023 and Emergency Ordinance no. 163/2022, the proposal on the spending norms of public institutions (L467/17.08.2026), the one on the National Local Development Programme (L468/17.08.2026) and the one on Article 208 of Pre-university Education Law no. 198/2023, which would repeal Article LIX of Law no. 141/2025 on fiscal and budgetary measures (b463/12.08.2026).

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Until the decision was published, the Senate was in parliamentary recess. The ordinary autumn session begins in September, so without this convening none of the laws above could have been put to a vote before that date.

The second change is one of calendar, for the tax initiatives. The deadline for debate and adoption is to move to 60 days. Without the extension, an initiative whose deadline expires is deemed tacitly adopted by the chamber before which it was tabled, and the Senate would have lost control over its content.

The third change concerns how old some of the files are. The law on protected natural areas was registered with the Senate in November 2022, so it is approaching four years of legislative passage, while two of the proposals on the list were registered only on 17 August 2026, a week before the session.

What does not change is the nature of the session. An extraordinary session cannot go beyond the approved agenda, so during these three days the Senate cannot take up subjects that do not appear in the annex to the decision or that are not sent to it by the Chamber of Deputies, the last point on the list.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • It unblocks two laws sent back by the President of Romania, which would otherwise have waited until September.
  • It prevents the tacit adoption of four initiatives with a tax impact, by extending the debate deadline to 60 days.
  • It publishes the exact programme of the three days in advance, with plenary times, so the proceedings can be followed by anyone.
  • It allows committee work online as well, which reduces the risk that a lack of quorum in midsummer will hold up the opinions.

What remains a problem

  • The agenda has nine points for two plenary days, so the debate on each text risks being short.
  • Two of the proposals were registered on 17 August, a week before the vote, an interval in which public consultation is practically impossible.
  • The annex contains only the draft agenda, so the final list can be changed in the plenary, and anyone preparing on the basis of this document has no guarantee that it will stay as it is.
  • The law on protected natural areas resumes almost four years after it was registered, a sign that re-examination does not guarantee a quick outcome this time either.

Practical advice

  1. If one of the laws matters to you, look it up by the registration number given in brackets, for example L43/3.02.2026. That is the identifier under which it appears in the Senate’s record of legislative passage.
  2. Bear in mind that the agenda in the annex is a draft. Check the list actually approved at the start of each plenary sitting, on 24 and on 26 August, before drawing conclusions about what was voted.
  3. If you work in tax, follow the four initiatives with an extended deadline separately. The extension to 60 days moves the decision to the autumn, so those texts are not final yet.
  4. For the laws sent back for re-examination, read the request of the President of Romania first. It shows exactly which articles are contested, and the plenary debate is conducted mainly on those points.
  5. Do not confuse the final vote in the extraordinary session with entry into force. Adoption is followed, as the case may be, by the constitutionality review, promulgation and publication in the Official Gazette of Romania.
  6. If you want to see the adopted text, wait for the law to be published in the Official Gazette of Romania. The intermediate versions produced during the debate have no legal effect.

Frequently asked questions

Who can convene the Senate in extraordinary session?
Under Article 66(2) of the Constitution, the chambers may meet in extraordinary session at the request of the President of Romania, of the Standing Bureau of each chamber or of at least one third of the number of deputies or senators. The convening is done by the president of the chamber, and in the Senate the procedure is set out in detail in Article 84 of the Rules of Procedure.
What does it mean that a law is sent back for re-examination?
It means that the President of Romania has used the right laid down in Article 77(2) of the Constitution and has asked Parliament, once only, to discuss the law again before promulgation. Parliament may accept the observations, accept them in part or adopt the law in the same form.
Why is the debate deadline being extended to 60 days?
Because, if the deadline expires without a vote, the proposal is deemed adopted in the form tabled by its initiator, through tacit adoption. The extension to 60 days preserves the chamber’s right to amend or to reject the text.
Which laws on the agenda concern the general public directly?
The most visible is the law amending Emergency Ordinance no. 81/2021 on immediate intervention against brown bear attacks. Next come the one on the regime of protected natural areas, the proposals supplementing the Tax Code and the one on the National Local Development Programme.
Can a new subject be added to the agenda during the session?
Not outside the approved framework. An extraordinary session is held on the agenda for which it was convened. The annex to the decision does, however, provide for a general point on the legislative initiatives received from the Chamber of Deputies.
Where can the results of the votes of 24 and 26 August be seen?
In the transcripts and the voting lists published by the Senate for each plenary sitting. The adopted laws are then found, after promulgation, in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I.

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. 697 of 21 August 2026 8 pages PDF, 78 KB

Open the official PDFDownload the PDF

The viewer is not shown on small screens. Use the buttons above to open or download the file.

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