Romania increasingly governed through government ordinances since pandemic, study says

Romania is the Central and Eastern European country that adopted the most normative acts in 2022, most of which were initiated by the government, which has tended to govern through ordinances more since the pandemic, according to a new study.

The Grayling AcTrend study analyzed legislative changes in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Croatia, from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022.

In the ranking of CEE countries with the highest number of normative acts adopted in 2022, Romania is followed by Poland, with 189 primary legislation acts, Slovakia with 176, and Croatia with 158. Serbia (60) and Hungary (83) are at the opposite end of the spectrum.

"In 2022, Romania adopted over a third (573) of the total of 1437 normative acts approved in 8 Central and Eastern European countries. Of the normative acts approved in Romania, 60% were initiated and adopted by the executive, while Parliament managed to conclude the legislative process for only 15% of the ordinances approved by the government in 2022," the study reveals, cited by News.ro.

In 2023 and 2024, the economic ordinances (inflation, energy) issued by the government in 2022 are likely to prevail.

Compared to the average period of 2013-2017, there is a 14% increase in the number of laws adopted by CEE countries. However, in Romania, the evolution is much more accelerated, with an average increase of 30% in the number of laws adopted by Parliament in the last five years.

"The most significant increase, however, comes again from the area of legislative acts issued by the Government. If until 2019 the Government issued around 100 ordinances annually, in 2020, due to the crisis generated by the pandemic, their number more than doubled. Thus, in 2020, Romania reached a record of 235 ordinances, which represent approximately 80% of the total of 298 laws approved by Parliament that year, transforming the Government into the main legislative power," the study indicates.

The trend of the Romanian Government being the main legislator over the pandemic has persisted in the following years. The year 2022, marked by the beginning of the war in Ukraine, inflation, and rising energy prices, once again favored a high number of ordinances issued by the Government, 229, while the total number of laws adopted by Parliament was 385. Of the 385 laws, 10% are projects to adopt other ordinances issued by the Government in 2022.