Hundreds of taxi drivers joined a protest against planned legislation that would allow ride sharing services like Uber to operate in Romania.

Drivers parked hundreds of cars outside the landmark Romanian parliament, the communist era House of the People, calling on the government not to advance the legislation.

Romania's taxi drivers have been demonstrating against unregulated services like Uber for months now, despite the government's efforts to control the online taxi service.

Last May, the Romanian government issued an emergency decree ramping up steep fines for drivers of ride-hailing services like Uber and Taxify.

The decree fines drivers transporting people in their car without a valid taxi license up to 1,175 US dollars (1,050 euros) already from the first offense.

Previously, drivers were fined only after repeated offenses.

Romanian Deputy Prime Minister Daniel Suciu was quoted by local media as saying that the decree seeks to curb “transport piracy” and that new laws would soon establish a legal framework for the operations of Uber and similar companies.

(Source: AP)