While the Commission agrees that holding four or five elections during the same year may be problematic, it notes that this schedule had been known for years, as none of these elections was extraordinary or early. It remains therefore problematic that the Parliament or the relevant authorities (including the ministries and the CEC) did not react earlier and did not take the initiative for amending the electoral provisions in advance. By way of comparison, the legislative revision in view of the merger of the 2019 European Parliament and local elections in Malta had taken place already in 2015, that is four years in advance of the elections. As already said, the possibility of many elections taking place the same year could and should be envisaged by legislation. The danger of infringing the principle of stability could have been reduced if the Romanian authorities had formally announced at an earlier point what emergency provisions were intended so that the stakeholders could plan accordingly, but it appears that the proposals were only seen during the short and belated consultation process.