RSS
The process of political decision-making in Romania is non-transparent - sociological study
The process of political decision-making in Romania, at present, is rather non-transparent according to 72%ofthe interviewees of a sociological study made by the Association of the Romanian Registrar of Lobby (ARRL) in September among 58 entities.
The questionnaire was addressed to the practicians in 58 entities: companies of consultancy in public affairs, companies of consultancy in communication, companies of consultancy in law, Romanian companies,multi-national companies, commerce chambers, employers’ associations, business associations and NGOs.
According to the survey,71% of them consider that they have been interacting with political decision-makers for over ten years namely at least once a month and the strongest instruments of the lobby makers are economic arguments in proportion of 67%, the social ones – 57%.
The opportunity of having public visibility influences the political decisions (79%),own party(68%) and electoral decisions (64%) the survey says.
The interviewed ones considered 43% of the most efficient actors of institutional communication are the business associations followed by the companies for consultancy in public affairs – 42%, multi-national companies -36% employers’ associations – 32%, trade unions – 30%,commerce chambers – NGOs -21% and national companies- 13%.
According to the study, the most efficient actors of institutional communication are those in the energy sector (oil, gas,electricity) – 50%, the pharma sector (46%) the financial-banking services (35%) defence and security (25%).
According to the same survey, the process of decision-making got worse over the last 3-4 years, say 66%ofthe interviewees, there is no public consultation, the quality of the dialogue dropped, there is no transparency, the decisions are not founded, without an impact analysis, there is no predictability.
At present, the Lobby Law is under debate in the parliament as well as a draft for NGO.
‘The law is the translation of that in Austria but with omissions or wrong translation’ said Laura Florea,the chairman of the Association of the Romanian Registrar for Lobby. The text of the draft law in Romania is not adapted, copying paragraphs from the Austrian law which do not correspond to the Romanian law.
‘In the Austrian law the registering in the Registrar is online and in Romania is done on the basis of a ‘paper file’ Florea says. ‘The Single Registrar of Transparency of Interests (RUTI) disappears and there appears a body connected to the Registrar of Commerce’ the ARRL chairman says who criticises the fact that the present draft law says that ‘ the companies will state only if they have spent over 100,000 euro for lobby activities – the level taken from the Austrian law – even there the level is very high’ . Laura Florea wanted a law of lobby copied from the one in Brussels as it ‘ applies to our needs’.