Preliminary assessment of the second payment request of Romania

        national coordinator for the preparation of government strategies. The General Secretariat
        of the Government is tasked with providing methodological guidance for the development
        of government strategies, their evaluation and update (Art. 12). The methodology (Art. 8)
        requires that an institution initiating a strategy is to set up a working group in charge of the
        drafting, consultation, endorsement process and finalisation of the strategy, under the
        coordination of the General Secretariat of the Government. For cross-sectoral strategies,
        the initiator in the lead shall set up an inter-ministerial working group (Art. 9).
 iii)   As for the monitoring and evaluation process, the methodology requires each strategy to
        include indicators against which performance is measured and implementation monitored
        (Art. 14). According to Art. 13, the General Secretariat of the Government is to use the
        Institutional Strategic Plans (ISP) IT platform to monitor the strategy implementation using
        the indicators. The action plan that must accompany each strategy is to set out the timeline

        for periodic monitoring and evaluation (Art. 14).
 iv)    Finally, strategy initiators are to update their strategies at the expiration of the
        implementation period, in case of relevant emergency situations, and when it is necessary
        to align policies with European priorities (Art. 16).
(2) a Government Decision laying down the procedures for strategic planning and budgetary
programming to ensure an adequate link between policy priorities and budget formulation.
Ministerial budget programs shall implement the recommendations of spending reviews (which
are introduced under the Tax and pensions reform component section of the Council
Implementing Decision Annex) and according to the methodology developed in cooperation with
the Ministry of Finance.
Government Decision No. 427/2022 which, according to national legislation, entered into force on
29 March 2022, lays down the procedures for the development, implementation, monitoring,

evaluation and updating of institutional strategic plans (ISP). The Government Decision includes a methodology that defines an ISP as a strategic document consisting of the planning and the budgetary component of a strategy (Annex 1, section 1.1). For a selected policy area (such as, healthcare, education, transport etc.), the methodology requires the ISP to define a long-term vision (6-10 years) and break it down into strategic objectives. The pursuit of these objectives is detailed in the budgetary component, which lists a medium-term (2-4 years) program with related measures and actions (Annex 1, section 2). The methodology ensures an adequate link between policy priorities and budget formulation as required by milestone #401 because the ministry (or ministries) in charge of an ISP must specify for each program and measure the performance indicators (which allow for the monitorisation and evaluation of the public policy effects on medium and long term), timeline for implementation, program manager and the financing of the program (an annual budget with estimates for the

following three years [Annex 1, section 3]). Moreover, according to Article 6 of Government Decision No. 427/2022, program expenditure planning must be designed according to the overarching macroeconomic and fiscal stability guidelines and in compliance with the Medium-Term Budgetary Framework, respecting the Methodology for drawing up and implementing budget programmes (Government Decision No. 467/2022, approved under milestone 200 of Component 8 (Tax and Pensions Reforms),of the Romanian Recovery and Resilience Plan) and in line with instructions set out in Art. 13(c) of the Government Decision No. 427/2022, which provides that the preparation and update of the budgetary component in the Institutional Strategic Plans, must be linked with the Fiscal Strategy and the annual budget. Thus, the performance indicators elaborated as part of the Institutional Strategic Plans will be the same indicators used in the budgetary execution process. In elaborating the methodologies, the General Secretariat of the Government and the Ministry of Finance have been collaborating at a technical level. Furthermore, during the

official decision-making process, both Government decisions and both methodologies were

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