Repeal
Article 200 was repealed due to pressure from various organisations. One key factor in its repeal was the European Union, which stated that for Romania to become a full member of the EU, all laws discriminatory to homosexuality had to be abrogated. The Council of Europe also criticised the presence of the law as a negative contributor to Romania's human rights record. Additionally, there was significant pressure from Romanian human rights and LGBT groups, particularly ACCEPT, the largest gay rights organisation in the country.
This led to the start of the Article's repeal on 22 June 2001, when the government adopted Emergency Ordinance 89/2001 modifying the Penal Code and removing Article 200 completely. The ordinance was then sent to the two chambers of parliament for approval. The Chamber of Deputies approved the government's ordinance with 122 votes for, 63 against and 17 abstentions.
The repeal of Article 200 was then approved by the Senate's Juridical Committee on 29 August 2001, with the Senate itself debating and approving the modified version of the Penal Code on September 6. During the debate in the Senate, a secretary of state from the Ministry of Justice, Costache Ivanov, stated that Article 200 was unconstitutional, violating Article 26 of the Constitution of Romania, which protects private life. Additionally, Article 200 came into conflict with Romania's Anti-Discrimination Law of 2000, which explicitly forbids discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. The ordinance repealing Article 200 was approved by the Senate, with 83 votes for, 32 against and 6 abstentions.
The repeal of Article 200 was welcomed both by LGBT rights organisations as well as human rights groups in Romania and worldwide. Adrian Coman, then the executive director of ACCEPT, the largest LGBT rights organisation in Romania, stated in an interview after the article was repealed that: "Thus has been eliminated a delicate subject that appeared on all international agendas regarding homosexuality. From a legislative point of view, Romania has chosen to respect human dignity, putting an end to a culture of fear and humiliation that its citizens of homosexual or bisexual orientation were forced to live through." Additionally, the International Lesbian and Gay Association hailed the removal of Article 200 as a "major and historic step towards the complete elimination of all laws criminalising same-sex relationships in Europe", while also stating that it was a major step towards Romania's membership of the EU.
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