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GOVERNMENT OF ROMANIA
The Ministry of Public Information

BILL
on Decisional Transparency in Public Administration

Chapter I
General Provisions

Art. 1 – (1) The present law establishes the minimal procedural rules
enforceable to ensure decisional transparency within central and local public
administration authorities, elected or appointed, as well as on other legal
persons that use public financial resources, within relations between them
and the citizens as well as citizens’ legally established associations.
(2) The purpose of the law is the following:
a) increasing responsibility degree of public administration toward the
citizen as a beneficiary of administrative decision.;
b) stimulating active participation of the citizens in administrative
decision-making process as well as in legal regulation elaboration process;
c) increasing transparency degree at the level of the whole public
administration.

Art. 2 – The basic principles of this law are the following:
a) informing the persons beforehand, by automatic disclosure, on
public interest issues that are to be debated by central and local public
administration authorities, as well as on draft legal regulations;
b) consulting the citizens and citizens’ legally established
associations, at public authorities’ initiative, relative to draft legal regulation
elaboration process;
c) actively participating in administrative decision-making and in
legal regulation elaboration process, with the observance of the following
rules:
1. the meetings of the institution that are subject to this law are
public, in accordance with the law;
2. debates shall be spread on the records and brought to public’s
knowledge;
3. the minutes of these meetings shall be recorded, filed and brought
to public’s knowledge.

Art. 3 – For the purpose of the present law, the terms below have the
following meaning:
a) public administration authority – any organizational structure of
local or central public administration that acts as public authority in office,
elected or appointed, with a view to accomplishing a public interest;
b) administrative decision – any act of a public authority, adopted as a
result of a collective deliberation;
c) legal regulation – the act issued or adopted by a public authority,
with general or local applicability;
d) decision-making – deliberative process developed by public
authorities within public meetings;
e) legal regulation elaboration – procedure of redacting a legal
regulation, previously to submitting it in order to be analysed and endorsed
by the public authority;
f) information of public interest – any information regarding the
activities or resulting from the activities of a public authority or institution,
regardless of the support or form or the way in which the respective
information is expressed;
g) recommendation – any point of view, suggestion, proposal or
opinion, expressed verbally or in writing, received by public authorities from
any person interested in decision-making process and in legal regulation
elaboration process;
h) transparency obligation – obligation of public authorities to inform
and submit draft legal regulations to public debate, to allow access to
administrative decision-making and to the minutes of public meetings;
i) legally established association – any civic, trade union, employer
organization or any other associative civic representation group;
j) minute – written document in which the points of view expressed by
the participants in a meeting, as well as the result of the debates are spread
on the records in short;
k) priority order – order that determines priority of participation in
public meetings depending on the interest expressed toward the topic of the
meeting;
l) public meeting – meeting held by public administration authorities
in which the administrative decisions that will be adopted by the authority
are presented.

Art. 4 – (1) Public authorities that are subject to this law are the
following:

a) central public administration authorities: the Government, the
ministries, other central organs of public administration that are below the
Government or below the ministries, the Government’s and the ministries’
decentralized public services, as well as autonomous administrative
authorities;
b) local public administration authorities: county boards, local boards,
mayors, public institutions and services of local or county interest.
(2) Transparency rules established by the present law are also
enforceable on autonomous administrations of national or local interest, to
trade companies in which the state or an administrative-territorial unit holds
the rank of majority shareholder as well as on other legal persons of private
civil law when the use of certain public financial resources is taken into
discussion.

Art. 5 – The Parliament, the President of Romania, the Judicial
Authority and the Public Ministry are not subject to this law.

Art. 6 – The legal regulation elaboration processes and the meetings
during which information on the following domains is presented and debated
do not come within the provisions of the present law:
a) National defence, public order and safety, the country’s economic
and political interests as well as the authorities’ deliberations if they are part
of classified information category, in accordance with the law;
b) Commercial or financial activities, if publication of those infringes
loyal competition principle, in accordance with the law;
c) Personal data, in accordance with the law.

Chapter II
Procedures on
Participation of the Citizens and of Legally Established
Associations in Legal Regulation Elaboration Process and in Decision-
Making Process

SECTION 1
Provisions on Participation in Legal Regulation Elaboration Process

Art. 7 – (1) Within draft legal regulation elaboration
procedures, the authority of public administration is bound to publish within

its own Web page an announcement on this action, to display it on the
premises of its own headquarters within a space accessible to the public (the
information-documentation unit) and to disseminate it to central or local
mass media, depending on the case.
(2) The announcement on a draft legal regulation elaboration shall be
brought to public’s knowledge in accordance with the provisions stipulated
in Paragraph (1), at least within 30 days before its submittal in order to be
analysed, endorsed and adopted by public authorities. The announcement
shall contain a substantiation notification, a grounds exposal or, depending
on the case, an approval paper on the necessity of adopting the submitted
legal regulation, the complete text of the draft of the respective act as well as
the deadline, the place and the modality in which those who might be
interested in it may send their written proposals, suggestions, opinions used
as recommendations only, regarding the draft legal regulation.
(3) The announcement on elaboration of a draft legal regulation
relevant for business environment shall be transmitted by its initiator to
business associations and to other legally established associations, on
specific activity domains, within the time stipulated in Paragraph (2), in
order to receive a consultative approval.
(4) When the announcement is published, the public administration
authority shall establish a period of maximum 20 days for receiving, in
writing, the consultative approval formulated by the associations stipulated
in Paragraph (3) as well as the other proposals, suggestions or opinions on
the draft legal regulation submitted to public debates.
(5) The head of the public authority shall appoint a person within the
respective institution, in charge with the relation with civil society, who will
receive the consultative approval as well as the interested persons’
proposals, suggestions and opinions on the proposed legal regulation.
(6) The draft legal regulation shall be transmitted to the interested
public authorities, in order to be analysed and approved, only after its
finalization on the basis of the observations and proposals stipulated in
accordance with Paragraph (4).
(7) The respective public authority is bound to decide organization of
a meeting within which the draft legal regulation shall be debated, if the
respective procedure was requested in writing by a legally established
association, by another public authority as well as if intimations sent by
People’s Attorney were received.
(8) In all cases when public debates are organized, the respective
debates shall take place within maximum 20 days since publication of the
date and the place when and where they will be carried out. The respective

public authority shall take into consideration all recommendations on the
respective draft legal regulation.
(9) In case of regulating a situation which, due to its exceptional
circumstances, imposes adoption of immediate solutions, with a view to
avoiding a severe infringement of public interest, the draft legal regulations
shall be submitted to adoption under the emergency procedure stipulated
within regulations now in force. In this case, the legal terms stipulated in
Paragraphs (2) and (4) are of 48 hours, respectively, of 24 hours.

Art. 8 – (1) When initiating a draft legal regulation, public
administration authorities are bound to elaborate and publish a preliminary
analysis on estimation of costs and benefits implied by the respective draft
legal regulation.
(2) The cost/benefit analysis may be contained in the substantiation
notification, in the grounds exposal or, depending on the case, in the
approval paper on the respective draft legal regulation.

SECTION 2
Provisions on Participation in Decision-Making Process

Art. 9 – (1) Participation of the interested persons in public meeting
debates shall take place under the following circumstances:
a) announcement on the public meeting shall be displayed at the
public authority’s headquarters, inserted in the public authority’s Web page
and issued to mass media at least 3 days before the meeting;
b) the respective announcement shall be brought to the knowledge of
the citizens and of the legally established associations that have sent, in
writing, their proposals and suggestions used as recommendations only, on
one of the domains of public interest that will be approached during the
public meeting;
c) the announcement shall contain the date, the hour and the place
when and where the public meeting will take place, as well as the meeting’s
agenda.
(2) Dissemination of the announcement and special invitation to
participation in public meeting, addressed to certain persons, is the
responsibility of the person in charge with the relation with civil society.
(3) Participation of the interested persons in the public meetings shall
be allowed within the limit of the available seats in the meeting hall, in

accordance with the priority order established by the interest of the legally
established associations relative to the subject approached during the public
meeting.

Art. 10 – The person chairing the meeting will invite the guests to take
into discussion the issues contained in the agenda.

Art. 11 – (1) Adoption of administrative decisions comes within the
exclusive province of public authorities.
(2) The points of view expressed during the meeting by the persons
invited shall be used as recommendations only.

Art. 12 – The minute of the debates within a public meeting,
inclusively, depending on the case, the result of the expressed votes, shall be
displayed at the headquarters of each public authority or it shall be published
within the respective public authority’s own Web page, in accordance with
provisions of Art. 6.

Art. 13 – (1) Public authorities stipulated in Art. 4 are bound to
elaborate and to file minutes of the public meetings. When considered
necessary, the public meetings may be also videotaped.
(2) The audio records of the public meetings, except for those
stipulated in Art. 6 will be brought to public knowledge, by request.

Art. 14 – (1) Public authorities stipulated in Art. 4, Paragraph (1), are
bound to elaborate and to publish an annual report on decisional
transparency, which shall obligatorily comprise the following elements:
a) total number of the received recommendations;
b) total number of recommendations included in the draft legal
regulations and in the content of the already made decisions;
c) total number of the participants in the public meetings;
d) the number of the public debates organized on the draft legal
regulations;
e) situation of the cases in which public authorities were publicly
charged for not observing provisions of the present law;
f) own evaluation of the partnership with the citizens and their
legally established associations;
g) the number of the closed-door meetings and motivation for
restricting access.

(2) The annual report on decisional transparency shall be brought to
public knowledge within the respective public authority’s own Web page, by
displaying it at the public authority’s headquarters on premises accessible to
the public or by presenting it within a public meeting.

CHAPTER III
Punishments

Art. 15 – (1) Any person that considers himself/herself infringed in
his/her rights stipulated in the present law may lodge a complaint to the
administrative contentious section of the Court within whose area the
plaintiff’s domicile is situated or within whose area the respective public
institution’s or public authority’s headquarters is situated.

(2) The complaint must be lodged within maximum 30 days’ time
since the coming into force of the legal regulation or of the administrative
decision adopted in public meeting.

Art. 16 – (1) Any administrative decision and any legal regulation
adopted without carrying out obligations relative to informing and
consulting the public as well as to public’s participation in, derived from the
present law, shall be considered null.
(2) Non-observance, by the public authorities, of the obligations
deriving from provisions of the present law as well as nullity of the decisions
or of the legal regulations adopted under these circumstances shall be
ascertained by the competent Administrative Contentious Court, after
judging the cause initiated on the basis of a complaint on violation of the
law.
(3) The Court may compel the public authority or institution to
resume the public information and consultation procedure stipulated by the
law or to convoke a public meeting on the same agenda.
(4) Court’s verdict shall be subject to appeal. The Appeal Court’s
verdict shall be final and irrevocable. The Court shall judge both the
complaint and the appeal in emergency procedure and both the complaint
and the appeal shall be exempted from the payment of the stamp fee.

Art. 17 – The deed of the public servant that, for reasons contrary to
the law, denies persons’ access to the public meetings or incapacitates the
interested persons from involving in legal regulation of public interest
elaboration process, under the present law, constitutes a disciplinary

deviation and it shall be punished in accordance with provisions of Law No.
188/1999 on the Statute of Public Servants or, depending on the case, with
labour legislation.

Art. 18 – Persons assisting in the public meetings, invited or on their
own initiative must observe the public authority’s own regulations on public
meetings. In case that the president of the meeting will notice that a person
has encroached the mentioned regulations, the president may order
evacuation of the respective person.

CHAPTER IV
Final Provisions

Art. 19 – (1) The present law shall come into force in 60 days’ time
since its publication in the Official Gazette, Part I.
(2) On the date of coming into force of the present law any contrary
provisions shall be abrogated.

Art. 20 – In 30 days’ time since the coming into force of the present
law, public authorities and the other legal persons that are subject to the
present law are bound to modify their organization and functioning
regulations in accordance with the provisions of the present law.