© OECD A joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union, principally financed by the EU Impact Preliminary Assessment - Reform Stage and Perspectives - Conference on Good Governance and Public Administrative Reform Bucharest, 6 December 2007 General Secretariat of the Government

1. Identified problems 2. Impact preliminary assessment 3. Presentation and reasoning instruments 4. Requests of the regulations (legislative drafts)

1. Problems identified in the process of drawing up regulations (legislative drafts) a)Improper grounding of the legislative drafts (regulations) b)Lack of detailed information on the necessary costs for the promotion of the proposed measures or for the administrative capacity necessary to their implementation c)Legislative and institutional overlapping d)Lack of consulting the stakeholders involved, the target groups, the institutions of the public administration e)Poor strategic approach in setting up priorities

Findings Carrying out an impact preliminary assessment is limited because of lacking data and time necessary to achieve sound researches and surveys. At the same time, carrying out an impact and the related consultancy preliminary assessment slows down the decisional process. The decision-makers must often pass decisions which lack an impact study. Often, the impact assessment comes up too late when the decision has already been made fact that leads to the modification of the newly adopted legislative draft.

2. Preliminary assessment of the regulations (legislative drafts) impact It is the grounding way for the proposed legislative solutions. It represents a set of activities and procedures carried out to ensure a proper grounding of the legislative drafts. It considers identification and analysis of the economic, social, environmental, legislative and budgetary effects that these drafts produce. The legislative draft’s initiator must do it before the promotion (adoption).

3. The presentation and reasoning instrument must consist of: a)The reason for issuing the regulation (legislative draft) – describing the current situation and foreseen changes; b)Socio-economical impact– effects of the macroeconomic, business and social fields and on the environment, including the cost-benefit assessment; c)Financial impact on the strengthened general budget both on short term, for the running year and for on long term (5 years), including information regarding the expenditures and revenues; d)Impact on the laws in force;

3. The presentation and reasoning instrument must consist of: e)Consultancies developed in order to draw up the legislative draft, organizations and experts consulted, the core of the recommendations received; f)Public information activities on drawing up and implementing the legislative draft; g)Implementation measures – institutional and functional changes within local and central administration. The content and the structure of the presentation and reasoning instruments are set by the Government Decision no.1361/2006.

4. Requests of the legislative drafts The solutions they contain must be solidly grounded. To ground the new legislative draft we must start from the current and future social expectations as well as from the lacks of the laws in force.

4. Requests of the legislative drafts The social interest, the state legislative policy and the requests of complying with the internal regulations as well as of complying the national laws with the Community laws and with the international treaties to which Romania is part must be taken into account. The targets of the legislative drafts must easily understand the text of the document, therefore this aspect must be considered when drawing up the draft

4. Requests of the legislative drafts The regulation (legislative draft) must establish necessary, sufficient and possible rules meant to lead to a better legislative steadiness and efficiency.