Romanian Govt Seeks Confidence Vote To Pass Education Reform

Boc said the Parliament’s standing offices cannot postpone the vote sought for the bill because a date has already been set and it is the Government’s prerogative to decide when to pass a bill by seeking a confidence vote in Parliament. He added Cabinet members have been invited to Parliament for the procedure Thursday morning at 10 and there is no reason for delays.

„They have no legal, political or constitutional grounds to postpone our seeking a confidence vote,” Boc said.

Leaders of the opposition Social Democratic and Liberal Parties said Wednesday they would call on the Parliament to postpone the procedure for the education bill until the Constitutional Court issues a ruling concerning it. The Senate’s social democrat chairman, Mircea Geoana, notified the court last week regarding a potential conflict between state institutions, triggered by the Cabinet’s decision to pull the education bill from the Senate and seek lawmakers’ confidence vote to pass it.

Although the opposition failed to topple the Government Wednesday, seeking a confidence vote to pass a bill allows it to submit a new motion of no-confidence within three days of when the Cabinet presents the respective bill before Parliament. If the motion is rejected, the bill gets adopted into law bypassing regular parliamentary procedure.