The mandate of the National Assembly commences at the constitutive sitting. The constitutive sitting is convened by the President of the Republic within a month following the elections.
The constitutive sitting serves to lay the groundwork for its operations in terms of human resources and organisation: it approves election reports; it verifies Members' mandates, followed by Members taking an oath; and it elects the officers of Parliament. The National Assembly may form standing committees as early as the constitutive sitting, or may do so at a subsequent sitting (as it did in 1998 and 2006). The President of the Republic makes a recommendation to the constitutive sitting concerning the person of the Prime Minister. Forming the new Parliament terminates the mandate of the previous government, which will thereafter continue in office as a caretaker government until the new government is formed. Decisions on human resources and organisation taken at the constitutive sitting (on officers and the system of committees) are underpinned by a political agreement between the parliamentary groups.
The organisation of the National Assembly (Act on the National Assembly)
The National Assembly passed Act XXXVI of 2012 on the National Assembly on 16 April 2012 and adopted Parliamentary Resolution 10/2014 (24 February 2014) in 2014.
In addition to the Fundamental Law, the new Act provides for the status and organisation of the National Assembly. However, the Act on the National Assembly does more than simply supersede the provisions of the previous Rules of Procedure on the organisation of Parliament; it also adds new components. The Act contains provisions that govern the legal status and remuneration of Members of Parliament and the norms for cooperation between the National Assembly and the Government on affairs relating to the European Union, which had heretofore been regulated by three separate laws.
The provisions on the operation and internal procedures of the National Assembly continue to be enshrined in a parliamentary resolution (on certain provisions of the Rules of Procedure).
Most of the new rules took effect on 20 April 2012, while several of the provisions came into force either in January 2013 (e.g. regarding the Deputy of the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Parliamentary Guard etc.), or on the day Parliament held its constitutive sitting in 2014 (e.g. certain conflict of interest rules applicable to Members of Parliament, the new remuneration rules for Members, the representation of the national minorities in Parliament etc).