Parliamentary groups

The Deputies and Senators may organize themselves into parliamentary groups according to the standing orders of each Chamber.

The parliamentary groups are organized immediately after the Deputies and Senators have met in their first sitting. According to the standing orders of the two Chambers, with a view to "forming the working bodies and carrying on their activity, the Deputies and Senators form parliamentary groups consisting of at least 10 members for the Chamber of Deputies, and of at least 5 for the Senate, who have stood for election on the lists of the respective parties and political formations. If there are less than 10, and 5, respectively, Deputies and Senators, they may join independent Members of Parliament, with a view to forming parliamentary groups, or they may affiliate to parliamentary groups constituted according to the basic rules. After its formation, the parliamentary group elects a chairman, one or more deputy-chairmen, as the case may be, and a secretary.

Deputies representing the organizations of citizens belonging to national minorities others than the Magyar minority may constitute a single parliamentary group.

A party or a political formation may constitute only one parliamentary group. At the same time, a Deputy or a Senator may belong only to a single parliamentary group.

The chairman of the group informs the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate, as the case may be, of the number of members and nominal composition of the parliamentary group of which he or she is the leader.

According to the Standing Orders of the Chamber of Deputies, the Deputies of certain parties or political formations whose number is not sufficient to form a parliamentary group, as well as the independent Deputies, may join in mixed parliamentary groups or may affiliate to other parliamentary groups.

Senators elected as independent may affiliate to one of the parliamentary groups formed according to the Standing Orders of the Senate.

The Standing Orders of the Chamber of Deputies and the Standing Orders of the Senate grant an enhanced importance to the parliamentary groups. Thus, the parliamentary groups may:

• make proposals for the composition of the validation committee, within the limit of the seats approved for each group; moreover, the validation committee must proportionally reflect the political configuration of the Chamber or Senate as it results from the formation of the parliamentary groups;
• propose candidates for the election of the Presidents of the two Chambers;
• propose candidates for the election of vice-chairmen, secretaries and quaestors of the Standing Bureaux, within the limit of the reserved seats;
• agree, through their chairmen, to the designation of the members of parliamentary committees, in accordance with the rule of proportional representation;
• propose the cessation of the quality of member of a parliamentary committee or the replacement of a member. A parliamentary group may replace two Deputies at the most during a legislature;
• propose members in the mediation committees;
• request the modification of the agenda;
• present amendments;
• request, through their chairmen, the verification of quorum completion to the President of the Chamber;
• request the closure of the debate of an issue raised for discussion in the Chamber of Deputies.