1. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

2. The regulatory framework in Romania allows the civil society to impact public decision making. There are several laws or regulations which allow citizens’ consultation during the decision making process. The main piece of legislation in this field is represented by Law 52 of 2003, as a result of public debates initiated by the business sector and NGOs as well, with the support of the Romanian Government.

3. The first purpose in adopting this law was to encourage companies’, entrepreneurs’, NGOs’ and citizens’ participation in the legislative process. It was intended to raise awareness of their rights as well as consolidate the relationship between authorities and citizens, promote accountability in order to respect the principles of a democratic society.

4. Core values for the practice of public participation: The public should have a saying in decisions about actions that affect their lives. Public participation includes the promise that the public’s contribution will influence the decision. The public participation process communicates the interests and meets the process needs of all participants.

5. The public participation process seeks out and facilitates the involvement of those potentially affected. The public participation process involves participants in defining how they participate. The public participation process communicates to participants to show their input affected the decision. The public participation process provides participants with the information they need to participate in a meaningful way.

6. Transparency and accountability in public administration refers not only to the public’s right to access public information – as settled in Romania through the Law 544 of 2001 regarding the free access to the information of public interest - but also to the possibility of attracting and involving citizens into the legislative process or into decisions making process. The public participation in the legislative process is not possible unless the public is properly informed on the main subjects on the authorities’ agenda or on the best ways to impact the decision making process.

7. The most important laws providing the civil sector representatives, citizens or NGOs the possibilities or the tools in order to participate in the decision making process are: the Law 52 of 2003 regarding the decisional transparency in public administration (the sunshine law) and the Law 544 from 2001 regarding the free access to the information of public interest.

8. There are also, provisions of such nature that offer the public the possibility to involve or to impact on the legislative process in other laws or regulations such as: the Law 161 from 2003 regarding a couple of measures in order to allow the transparency in public offices and in business environment and in order to prevent and sanction corruption the Law 215 from 2001, which was several times modified and updated, regarding the local public administration and the Law 554 from 2004 regarding the contentious business falling within the competence of the administrative courts.

9. According to the Article 2 of the 52 Law the very principles of transparency law are those of: ex officio, preliminary informing the persons, on the public interest problems that are to be debated by the local and central public administration authorities, as well as on the projects of any normative acts consulting the citizens in taking the administrative decisions and in the process of elaboration of the normative acts projects.

10. The authorities of the central public administration to which the provisions of transparency law refers are pointed out in the Article 4: the ministries other central bodies of the public administration under the authority of the Government or of the ministries their decentralized public services autonomous administrative authorities.

11. The authorities of the local public administration to which the provisions of transparency law refers are also pointed out in the Article 4: the county councils the local councils the mayors the institutions and public services of local or county interest.

12. The law 52 of 2003 refers to public participation to administrative decision making process. The public is consulted regarding different drafts of law initiated by local authorities, public institutions or ministries. After the moment when the draft arrives within the Parliament the public, mainly NGOs witnessing the parliamentary debates can or can not be consulted according to the procedures set by the Parliament. Interesting to note that although the initiative for such consultations came from the business sector, during the last 3 years the NGOs have been the real beneficiaries of the law.

13. Provisions Concerning Participation in the Process of Drafting Normative Acts The actual procedures regarding the participation of the citizens and of the associations that were legally created in the process of drawing up the normative acts and in the decision making process refers to the obligation of the public administration authority of - publishing on its own site or - posting at its own office, an announce regarding the initiative of drawing up draft bills.

14. The announce must be posted in a room accessible to the public and can be transmitted to the local or central mass-media, by case, as well. The announce has to be made public in any of the cited ways in terms that vary from case to case: 30 days for public participation in the drawing up of the normative acts process or 3 days, for public participation in the decision-making process.

15. The announce will contain a proving note, a motive account, or, by case, an approval report regarding the necessity of adopting the normative act that was proposed, the place and the modality in which those interested can send in written propositions, suggestions, opinions as recommendations for the draft. The public administration authority will transmit the drafts to all the persons that have applied for the receiving of this information.

16. The public authority is obliged to decide the organization of a meeting in which the draft is publicly debated, if this thing was required in written by a legally constituted association or by another public authority. All the recommendations regarding the draft made during the public meeting or in written sent to the public authorities must be analyzed and taken into consideration. However, the decision whether or not to include within the drafts of future regulations information or suggestions coming from citizens, nongovernmental organizations or from the business community belong to the authorities.

17. Provisions Concerning Participation in the Process of Decision-Making The provisions of this section offer a unitary treatment of the public's participation in the meetings held by public institutions. The relevant public authority shall make public an announcement containing the date and hour of the meeting and the meeting agenda, at least 3 days before the actual taking place of the meeting The chairperson is supposed to allow the participants in the public meeting to express their points of view The public authorities has the obligation to draft the minutes of the public meetings, including mentions of the votes cast on the issues discussed

18. The public authorities within the Law 52 are obliged to draw up and to publish an annual report regarding the decisional transparency, that will contain such information as follows:  the total number of recommendations received  the total number of recommendations included in the draft and in the content of the decision made  the number of the public debates organized regarding the drafts  the situation of the cases in which the public authority was suited for the non-complying with the provisions of the present law  its own evaluation of the partnership with the citizens and with the legally constituted associations of these  the number of the meetings that were not public and the motivation for the access restriction.

19. The Law 52/2003 applies to local authorities and to ministries. According to the law, the public authority is solely responsible for the acceptance or rejection of suggestions and comments received from citizens or organization. It has no jurisdiction, however, to parliamentary activity. Consequently, if a Member of Parliament proposes or promotes a regulatory initiative he or she is not obliged to submit it to public consultation. The proposal just follows its legislative roadmap within the Parliament.

20. The existence of a systematic consultation framework within the Parliament would provide the MPs the opportunity to collect studies and documents from the civil society that would compensate the lack of expertise, would improve policymaking and create a platform for civic initiatives. Such an opportunity would provide a consistent support to policymaking, confirming the political will to develop a participatory democratic system.

21. Although there is a regulatory framework that allows civic participation in the decision making process (Law 52/2003), the methods applied so far often prove formalism, ambiguity, confusion and lack of trust in what civil society has to say through consultation. Public institutions comply with the law by opening a formal and inconsistent dialogue sometime with incomplete information. In terms of business associations these ones, although had the very initiative of the law, integrate themselves, in a syncopated way, in the public consultation process. The organization of public consultation is often carried out in order to comply with the letter of the law, while the result in terms of opinions collected, expertise and added value is often ignored.

22. The Transparency Law has added a new tool, perhaps the most powerful in relation with the public administration. Through this tool citizens can have their voice heard. “ ABSENTS ARE ALWAYS WRONG ”