Preliminary assessment of the second payment request of Romania

              evaluation and updating of government strategies;
    iii)      Government Decision No. 427/2022 (published in the Official Journal No. 301 on 29 March
              2022) laying down the procedures for strategic planning and budgetary programming;
    iv)       Government Decision No. 443/2022, published in the Official Journal No. 333 on 5 April
              2022 (hereinafter also referred to as the “Better Regulation Government Decision”):
                 a) updating the methodology for the ex-ante impact assessment of draft regulations,
                      including the SME test;
                  b) introducing the one-in-one-out principle in the legislation and approving the
                     methodology for applying the principle;
                  c) updating the methodology for the ex-post impact assessment of draft regulations.
.
Analysis:

The Council Implementing Decision states that the qualitative indicators are the “provisions in the laws and the government decisions indicating the entry into force of the laws and government decisions (…)”. In accordance with the Romanian Administrative Code, Chapter III. Section 1. Article 25 (e), the strategies, programs, and methodologies elaborated for specific policy areas shall be adopted by the Government through a Government Decision. Nonetheless, the Government Decision is evidence by the publication in the Official Journal, entering into force at the date of the publication. On this basis, it is considered that this constitutive element of the milestone is satisfactorily fulfilled. The justification and substantiating evidence provided by the Romanian authorities cover all of the constitutive elements of the milestone. The milestone consists of the entry into force of: (1) a Government Decision laying down procedures for the development, implementation,

monitoring, evaluation and updating of government strategies. Government Decision No. 379/2022, which, according to its Article 1, entered into force on 24 March 2022, lays down procedures for the development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and updating of government strategies, and contains in its Annex a methodology with further details on the procedures for elaboration, implementation, monitorization, evaluation and updating of government strategies. As further specified in the Operational Arrangements, Government Decision No. 379/2022 (the “Better Regulation Government Decision”) merges and has the same scope as the three Government Decisions included in the milestone description: Government Decision on updating the methodology for ex-ante impact assessment of the draft regulation, Government Decision on approving the “One in, one out” Methodology, and Government Decision on the procedural and methodological framework for ex-post assessment of regulations. The methodology lays down procedures for drafting government strategies (Chapter II, Section 2),

identifies the institutions in charge for their development and implementation (Chapter III), and sets
out the conditions for monitoring, evaluating, and updating the strategies. In particular:
     i)       As for development, the methodology (Art. 7) requires a strategy to identify synergies with
              existing priorities, policies, and legal frameworks, to describe the context of implementation
              as well as its general and specific objectives. The strategy must set out lines of action
              (together with a detailed action plan), define expected results and indicate the institutions
              responsible for the implementation, including indicators and procedures for monitoring and
              evaluating the strategy. Finally, the strategy must estimate the budgetary impact.
    ii)       As for implementation, the methodology identifies (Art. 3) the General Secretariat of the
              Government, in particular the Directorate for Coordination of Policies and Priorities, as the

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