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Law No. 52 Of 21 January 2003 On Decisional Transparency In Public Administration

Original Language Title:  LEGE nr. 52 din 21 ianuarie 2003 privind transparenta decizionala în administraţia publică

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LEGE no. 52 52 of 21 January 2003 (* republished *) on decision-making transparency in public administration *)
ISSUER PARLIAMENT
Published in OFFICIAL MONITOR no. 749 749 of 3 December 2013



----------- Note * *) Republicated pursuant to art. II of Law no. 281/2013 to amend and supplement Law no. 52/2003 on decision-making transparency in public administration, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 679 of 5 November 2013, giving the texts a new numbering. Law no. 52/2003 on decision-making transparency in public administration was published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 70 70 of 3 February 2003, and subsequently completed by Law no. 242/2010 for completion Law no. 52/2003 on decision-making transparency in public administration, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 828 828 of 10 December 2010. + Chapter I General provisions + Article 1 (1) This law establishes the minimum procedural rules applicable to ensure decision-making transparency within central and local public administration authorities, elected or appointed, and other public institutions using public financial resources, in the relations established between them with the citizens and their constituent legal associations. (2) The law aims to: a) to increase the public administration's responsibility towards the citizen, as a beneficiary of the administrative decision; b) to involve the active participation of citizens in the process of administrative decision-making and in the process of drafting normative acts; c) increase transparency across the entire public administration. + Article 2 The principles underlying this law are as follows: a) information in advance, ex officio, of persons on issues of public interest to be debated by central and local public administration authorities, as well as on draft normative acts; b) consultation of citizens and legal associations constituted, at the initiative of public authorities, in the process of elaboration of draft normative acts; c) active participation of citizens in administrative decision-making and in the process of elaboration of draft normative acts, in compliance with the following rules: 1. the meetings and debates of the public authorities and institutions subject to this law shall be public, under the law; 2. the debates will be recorded and made public; 3. the minutes of these meetings will be recorded, archived and made public, under the law. + Article 3 For the purposes of this Law, the following terms are defined as follows: a) normative act-the act issued or adopted by a public authority, with general applicability; b) decision-making process carried out by the public authorities; c) elaboration of normative acts-procedure for drafting a draft normative act prior to submission for adoption; d) recommendation-any point of view, suggestion, proposal or opinion, expressed verbally or in writing, received by the public authorities from any person interested in the decision-making process and in the process of elaboration of normative acts; e) the obligation of transparency-the obligation of public administration authorities to inform and submit draft normative acts to public debate, to allow access to administrative decisions and minutes of public meetings; f) legal association constituted-any civic, trade union, employers ' organization or any other associative group of civic representation; g) minuta-the written document in which the views expressed by the participants in a public meeting or at a public debate are recorded in summary; h) prefall orders-the order that determines the priority of participation in public meetings, in relation to the interest shown in the subject of the meeting; i) the public meeting-the meeting held within the public administration authorities and to which any interested person has access; j) public policy documents-the decision-making tools through which possible solutions for solving public policy problems are identified, as defined and structured in Government Decision no. 870/2006 on the approval of the Strategy for the improvement of the system for the development, coordination and planning of public policies at central public administration Government Decision no. 775/2005 for the approval of the Regulation on procedures for the development, monitoring and evaluation of public policies at central level, as amended; k) public debate-public meeting, organized according to art. 7. + Article 4 The public administration authorities obliged to comply with the provisions of this law a) central public administration authorities: ministries, other central bodies of public administration subordinated to the Government or ministries, their decentralized public services, as well as autonomous administrative authorities; b) local public administration authorities: county councils, local councils, mayors, institutions and public services of local or county interest. + Article 5 The provisions of this law shall also apply to public policy documents prepared by the central public administration authorities, as provided for in art. 4 lit. a). + Article 6 The provisions of this law do not apply to the process of elaboration of normative acts and meetings in which information on: a) national defense, national security and public order, the economic and political strategic interests of the country, as well as the deliberations of the authorities, if they belong to classified information, according to the law; b) the values, terms of realization and technical-economic data of commercial or financial activities, if their publication affects the principle of fair competition, according to the law; c) personal data, according to law. + Chapter II Procedures regarding the participation of citizens and legal associations constituted at the process of elaboration of normative acts and decision-making process + Section 1 Provisions on participation in the drafting of normative acts + Article 7 (1) In the framework of the procedures for the elaboration of draft normative acts the authority of the public administration has the obligation to publish an announcement regarding this action in its own website, to display it at its own premises, in an accessible space to the public, and to transmit it to the central or local media, as the case may be. The public administration authority will transmit the draft normative acts to all persons who have submitted an application for the receipt of this information. (2) The announcement regarding the elaboration of a draft normative act will be brought to the attention of the public, under the conditions of para. ((1), at least 30 working days before the submission for approval by the public authorities. The announcement will include: the date of display, a foundation note, a statement of reasons, an approval reference on the need to adopt the proposed normative act, an impact and/or feasibility study, as the case may be, the complete text of the draft act respectively, as well as the deadline, the place and the way in which those interested can send in writing proposals, suggestions, opinions with a recommendation value on the draft normative act. (3) The announcement regarding the elaboration of a draft normative act with relevance on the business environment is transmitted by the initiator of business associations and other legal associations constituted, by specific fields of activity, within the stipulated period in par. ((2). (4) Upon publication of the notice, the authority of the public administration shall establish a period of at least 10 calendar days for the draft normative acts provided in par. (2), in order to receive in writing proposals, suggestions or opinions on the draft normative act subject to public debate. (5) The proposals, suggestions or opinions on the draft normative act subject to public debate will be recorded in a register, mentioning the date of receipt, the person and the contact details from which the proposal was received, his opinion Recommendation. (6) Persons or interested organizations who submit proposals, suggestions or opinions in writing on the draft normative act subject to public debate shall specify the article or articles of the draft normative act to which they refer, mentioning the date of sending and contact details of the sender. (7) The leader of the public authority shall designate a person within the institution, responsible for the relationship with civil society, to receive the proposals, suggestions and opinions of interested persons regarding the draft normative act Proposed. (8) The draft normative act is submitted for analysis and approval to public authorities interested only after completion, based on the observations and proposals made according to par. ((4). (9) The public authority concerned is obliged to decide to hold a meeting in which to publicly debate the draft normative act, if this was required in writing by a legal association constituted or by another authority. public. (10) Public debates will be conducted according to the following rules: a) the responsible public authority, through the person designated according to paragraph (7), will organize the meeting, will publish on its website and will display at its own headquarters, together with the documents mentioned in par. (2), and the method of collecting the recommendations, the way of signing up and taking the word, the time allocated to taking the word and any other details of conducting the public debate ensuring the right to free speech of any interested citizen; b) the public debate will end when all applicants registered for the word have expressed their recommendations with concrete reference only to the draft normative act in question; c) the initiator and/or initiators of the draft normative act within the institution or local public authority, experts and/or specialists who participated in the elaboration of the foundation note will participate in the public debate the explanatory memorandum, the approval reference on the need to adopt the proposed normative act, the impact and/or feasibility study, as the case may be, and the draft normative act; d) within 10 calendar days from the conclusion of the public debate shall be ensured public access, on the website and at the headquarters of the responsible public authority, to the following documents: minutes of public debate, written recommendations collected, versions improved the draft normative act in various stages of the elaboration, the endorsement reports, as well as the final version adopted of the normative act. (11) All the documents provided in par. ((2) and para. ((10) lit. a) and d) will be kept on the website of the responsible public authority in a section dedicated to decision-making transparency. All updates to the site will necessarily mention the display date. (12) In all cases where public debates are held, they must be held no later than 10 calendar days after the publication of the date and place where they are to be held. The public authority concerned must consider all the recommendations relating to the draft normative act in question. (13) In the case of the regulation of a situation which, due to its exceptional circumstances, requires immediate solutions to be taken, in order to avoid serious public interest, the draft normative acts shall be subject to adoption in the the emergency procedure provided for in the current regulations. + Section 2 Provisions on participation in the decision-making process + Article 8 (1) The participation of interested persons in the public meetings shall be made under the following conditions: a) the notice of the public meeting shall be displayed at the headquarters of the public authority, inserted in its own website and transmitted to the media, at least 3 days before the deployment; b) this announcement must be brought to the attention of citizens and legal associations constituted who have presented suggestions and proposals in writing, with value of recommendation, relating to one of the areas of public interest to be addressed in public meeting; c) the notice will contain the date, time and venue of the public meeting, as well as the agenda. (2) The dissemination of the notice and the special invitation of some persons to the public meeting shall be the responsibility of the designated officer for the relationship with civil society (3) The participation of interested persons in public meetings will be made within the limits of the seats available in the meeting room, in the order of concern given by the interest of the legal associations constituted in relation to the subject of the public meeting, person presiding over the public meeting. (4) The order of prefall cannot limit the access of the media to public meetings. + Article 9 The person presiding over the public meeting shall give the guests and persons who participate on their own initiative the opportunity to express themselves on the issues on the agenda. + Article 10 ((1) The adoption of administrative decisions is the exclusive competence of public authorities. (2) The views expressed in public meetings by the persons referred to in art. 9 have value for recommendation. + Article 11 The minutes of the public meeting, including the vote of each member, except in cases where a secret ballot has been decided, will be displayed at the headquarters of the public authority concerned and published in its website. + Article 12 (1) The public authorities referred to in art. 4 are obliged to elaborate and archive the minutes of public meetings. When deemed necessary, public meetings may be recorded. ((2) Public meetings, with the exception of those provided for in art. 7, will be made public, on request, under the terms of Law no. 544/2001 on free access to information of public interest, with subsequent amendments and completions. (3) The public administration authorities referred to in art. 4 are obliged to justify in writing the non-takeover of the recommendations made and submitted in writing by citizens and their constituent legal associations. + Article 13 (1) The public authorities referred to in art. 4 are obliged to draw up and make public an annual report on decision-making transparency, which will include at least the following elements: a) the total number of recommendations received; b) the total number of recommendations included in the draft normative acts and the content of the decisions taken; c) number of participants in public meetings; d) the number of public debates organized on draft normative acts; e) the situation of cases in which the public authority was sued for non-compliance with the provisions of this law; f) their own assessment of the partnership with the citizens and their legal associations; g) the number of meetings that were not public and the motivation to restrict access. (2) The annual report on decision-making transparency will be made public in its own website, by display at its own premises in a space accessible to the public or by presentation in public session. + Chapter III Sanctions + Article 14 (1) Any person who considers himself injured in his/her rights, provided by this law, may make a complaint according to the provisions of Law of Administrative Litigation no. 554/2004 , with subsequent amendments and completions. (2) The complaint and appeal shall be adjudicated in the emergency procedure and shall be exempt from stamp duty. + Article 15 It constitutes disciplinary misconduct and is sanctioned, according to the provisions Law no. 188/1999 on the Statute of civil servants, republished, with subsequent amendments and completions, or, as the case may be, according to the labor law, the act of the official who, for reasons contrary to the law, does not allow persons to access prevent the involvement of interested persons in the process of drafting normative acts of public interest, under the conditions of this law. + Article 16 People who attend public meetings, invited or on their own initiative, must comply with the regulation of organization and functioning of the public authority. If the sitting president finds that a person has violated the regulation, he will order the warning and, ultimately, his eviction. + Chapter IV Final provisions + Article 17 (1) The present law shall enter into force within 60 days from the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I. (2) On the date of entry into force of this Law any contrary provisions shall be repealed. + Article 18 Within 30 days from the entry into force of this law, the public authorities and the other legal persons referred to in art. 4 are obliged to modify their organization and functioning regulation in accordance with the provisions of this law. --------