Romania has gradually developed its regulatory policy since the early 2000s. While Law 24/2000 on drafting legal acts set out an initial obligation to identify the impacts of draft regulations, the requirements for RIA have been further refined in Government Decision no. 1361 issued in 2006. According to these provisions, all regulations are required to be accompanied by an explanatory note, describing the rationale and assessing the impacts of the draft proposal. Additionally, Romania introduced a template for assessing the impacts during the development of public policy initiatives, including regulatory initiatives, which also assesses alternative options.
Nevertheless, challenges in the implementation of RIA remain. In practice, the quality of explanatory notes varies and the actual assessment of impacts is not always conducted. Romania has improved its guidance in 2015 and is currently developing proportionality criteria so as to better focus efforts on regulatory proposals with significant impacts. Romania should strengthen its oversight of RIA to ensure that RIA can effectively inform policy makers on the costs and benefits of different policy options.
Regarding stakeholder engagement, Law no. 52/2003 requires ministries to publish all regulations for comments on their websites. Romania recently established a central consultation portal where all consultations of ministries are listed. However, the minimum period for submitting comments is limited to ten days and no feedback on the outcomes of consultations is currently provided to participants.
Romania lacks a systematic approach for reviewing existing regulations. Ex post evaluation is largely conducted on an ad hoc basis by ministries and there is neither methodological guidance nor a requirement for the periodical review of existing regulations.
