Abstract
This chapter examines formal intra-executive coordination mechanisms such as joint meetings between the president and the prime minister, joint councils or ministerial committees, and administrative coordination between the offices of the president and the prime minister. It uncovers the status and legal basis of such instruments and explores how they have evolved in Finland, Lithuania, and Romania since the 1990s. It shows strong and systematic variation between the three countries, with Finland displaying a high level of formal coordination. In Lithuania and Romania, on the other hand, such coordination mechanisms are considerably weaker and more dependent on individual office-holders.
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Notes
- 1.
https://valtioneuvosto.fi/en/government/ministerial-committees; Laki valtioneuvostosta 28.2.2003/175, 24 §, https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2003/20030175#L2P12
- 2.
Valtioneuvoston ohjesääntö 3.4.2003/262, 25 §, https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2003/20030262#L4P25
- 3.
Law no. 415/2002[14] on the organization and functioning of the Supreme Council of National Defence, Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, issue 494/10.07.2002.
- 4.
In addition, Article 86 of the Constitution stipulates that “The President of Romania may consult with the Government about urgent, extremely important matters”.
- 5.
Earlier version of the government’s rules of the procedure (until 2009) had separate provisions about relations with the president, but these were of a rather general nature, stating, for example, that, on the initiative of the president, the government and the president could establish joint working groups or examine and take decisions on matters related to state administration.
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Raunio, T., Sedelius, T. (2020). Formal Coordination Mechanisms. In: Semi-Presidential Policy-Making in Europe. Palgrave Studies in Presidential Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16431-7_4
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