Preliminary assessment of the second payment request of Romania

maintains the eligibility of the guaranteed minimum income for those previously benefiting through this support.

Commission Preliminary Assessment: Satisfactorily fulfilled

                   Related Measure: Enhancing the predictability and efficiency of decision-making
                   processes by strengthening the capacity for policy coordination and impact
Number: 401        analysis at the level of the government and coordinating ministries, as well as by
                   strengthening the tools to increase the quality of public consultations at all levels
                   of the administration
Name of the Milestone: Entry into force of the methodologies and procedures to improve public
policy rationale and planning and administrative simplification
Qualitative Indicator: Provision in the laws and the government decisions
indicating the entry into force of the laws and government decisions
                                                                                    Time: Q1 2022
respectively for improving public policy rationale and planning and
administrative simplification

Context: Milestone #401 is part of reform C14.R1, which aims at (i) streamlining central government policy planning, (ii) enhancing the transparency and predictability of the legislative process and (iii) improving the consultation process of legislative proposals. Milestone #401 is part of the first strain of measures under C14.R1. Milestone #401 consists in the publication of five government decisions to streamline policy planning in the short and medium term, ensure coherence of policies with the budgetary process and strengthen the framework for ex-ante and ex-post impact assessment. Milestone #401 is the first step of the implementation of reform C14.R1 towards a more streamlined central government policy planning. It is complemented by milestone #404 on the establishment of a structure under the General Secretariat of the Government for monitoring the quality of regulatory impact assessments and evaluations (please refer to the preliminary

assessment fiche for milestone #404). It will be followed by: (i) milestone #402 providing for the development of the Institutional Strategic Plans (ISP) platform through which strategies are submitted; (ii) milestone #405 providing for the development and operationalisation of a platform that should monitor innovation in the public administration; (iii) target #403 setting the minimum number of ministries using the ISP platform; (iv) target #408 setting the minimum share of ex-ante impact assessments (also referred to as “presentation and motivation tools”) satisfying the quality criteria (being assessed at an excellent or satisfactory level) according to the Government methodology; (v) target #409 on the minimum share of proposed legislative initiatives included in the Government Annual Working Plan approved within the set deadline. For the first strain of measures mentioned above, Reform C14.R1 has an expected date for full implementation in Q1 2026. Evidence provided:

In line with the verification mechanism set out in the Operational Arrangements, the following
evidence was provided:
  i)    Cover note duly justifying how the milestone was satisfactorily fulfilled;
  ii)   Government Decision No. 379/2022 (published in the Official Journal No. 285 on 24 March
        2022) laying down procedures for the development, implementation, monitoring,

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