The Senate's Standing Bureau has mandated Senate President Mircea Abrudean to notify the Constitutional Court of Romania regarding the existence of a possible constitutional legal conflict between the Romanian Parliament and the Government over the procedure for adopting Emergency Ordinance 38/2026, which also concerns the SAFE military procurement programme.

On Tuesday, the Senate's Constitutional Committee found that a constitutional legal conflict existed between Parliament and the Government in relation to Emergency Ordinance 38/2026. The committee's opinion was forwarded to the Standing Bureau.

'During the Standing Bureau meeting of 13 May 2026, it was decided to mandate the president of the Senate to notify the Constitutional Court regarding the existence of a possible constitutional legal conflict between the Romanian Parliament and the Government concerning the procedure for adopting the draft law approving Emergency Ordinance 38/2026 amending and supplementing several normative acts,' according to the document sent on Thursday by the Standing Bureau to Constitutional Committee chair Nadia Cosmina Cerva.

According to the document, the Standing Bureau endorsed the Constitutional Committee's opinion.

Emergency Ordinance 38/2026 amending and supplementing several normative acts was published in the Official Gazette on 8 May 2026, three days after the Bolojan government had been dismissed through a no-confidence motion in Parliament and was functioning in a caretaker capacity.

Ombudsperson Renate Weber challenged Emergency Ordinance 38/2026 before the Constitutional Court.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) requested that the Senate's Standing Bureau refer the matter to the Constitutional Committee.

'Ilie Bolojan's dismissed government sent an emergency ordinance to the Official Gazette even though it was no longer in office. (...) On 4 May, before being dismissed, the Bolojan government had on its agenda that emergency ordinance concerning the SAFE military procurement programme. During the meeting, 12 items were added to the ordinance, including facilities granted to certain economic operators, which from our point of view required a new opinion from the Legislative Council, given the fundamental change to the ordinance,' PSD Senate group leader Daniel Zamfir argued at the time.

In response, Senate President Mircea Abrudean said there had been 'no procedural issue whatsoever' in the way the government adopted the ordinance. He specified that the opinion of the Legal and Constitutional Committee indicated the possible existence of unconstitutional elements, but that he had also requested an analysis from the Senate's specialist departments.

Abrudean explained that, from his perspective as former secretary general of the government, matters had been 'perfectly clear' and that the executive had acted fully in line with the procedure set out in Law 561/2009 governing the legislative path of government acts.

'The ordinance was adopted on time, namely on 4 May, with certain amendments subsequently made during the government meeting, something that happens frequently. A new opinion from the Legislative Council was required and was obtained within the period when the government was still in office and had not yet been dismissed on 5 May. Afterwards, the ordinance was reintroduced at the 8 May meeting so that the government could take note of that opinion, therefore there was no violation whatsoever,' Abrudean maintained. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Livia Popescu; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)