File talk:European Union member states by form of government.svg

this map is missing out on Slovenia!

Semi-presidentialist systems

I am not a specialist of politic systems, but in Finland and Romania, the prime minister is the head and government, and the government has the executive power, not the President, even if he has powers on foreign affairs for example. In France, the President has the executive power and the government does just applies his decisions. There's a lot of difference with Finland and Romania, even if Constitution in Romania was based on French Constitution (and it was modified since 1991, in 2003 for example!). So maybe Finland and Romania are semi-presidential states, but that situation makes France a presidential state.

I think it is difficult to exactly define which countries are semi-presidential and which are parliamentary. Many republics have a president that formally appoints the prime minister, while in practice it is the parliament that exercise this competence.

Concerning Finland, the country has earlier been a semi-presidential state. The president had very strong powers. But since the days of Urho Kekkonen, the president of Finland has lost most of its powers. Therefore it is not fully clearly if the republic is still a semi-presidential one, or if the republic nowadays is a parliamentary republic.

Concerning Romania, its constitution is based on the French one and is often said to be a semi-presidential republic. The current president, Traian Băsescu, is often attending the European Council, which means he has a lot of influence over the government policies.

According to the English Wikipedia, Romania is a semi-presidential republic, while Finland formally is a semi-presidential power but in practice a parliamentary one. --Glentamara (talk) 12:11, 12 May 2011 (UTC)