Government Gives Decentralization Go-Ahead

C.D.

• The Romanian Government convened for an extraordinary meeting, adopted the decentralization strategies for Health Care and Sports and approved the establishment of the Local Police

• Prime minister announces that decentralization strategies for Education, Agriculture, Culture and Labour will be adopted within ten days.

The Government convened for an extraordinary meeting yesterday, adopted the decentralization strategy for Health Care and approved the regulations for the decentralization of athletic activities, as well as a draft law regulating the establishment of the Local Police. "Decentralization means that we will give local or county authorities the prerogatives and the financial resources to better deal with the problems confronting the people of the local community. It is in fact an application of the principle of subsidiarity, which tells us that the decision needs to be made by the authorities closest to the citizens," Premier Emil Boc remarked on the occasion. He stressed it did not mean that the State would lose the overall control over such activities. "The verification, control and national standardization prerogatives remain with the central administration, as their point is to be applied unitarily in the entire country, in line with the law," Boc told NewsIn.

The Government adopted the strategy for decentralizing the public health care system, which becomes administratively effective as of 1 September and financially effective as of 1 January 2010. "We will create four additional normative acts by the end of the year in order to make the decentralization of the public health care system final also from a financial point of view as of 1 January," Boc added.

The Premier also announced the approval of a draft law regarding the Local Police. "It is a draft law which considers the needs of the local communities, a draft law that defines the specific prerogatives of the local authorities in terms of public order and peace, construction standard enforcement, environment care, commercial standard enforcement, population records and driving on public roads. It is a prerogative that the existing community police have not had so far and will give additional power to mayors and local councils to face the challenges posed by motor vehicle traffic within their community," Boc explained.

The third normative act approved by the Government is a draft decision sanctioning the set of regulations on the decentralization of athletic and youth activities proposed by the respective Ministry. The Prime Minister announced that the Government would take ten days to analyze the decentralization strategies for Education, Agriculture, Culture and Labour. "In the next ten days, the respective Ministries will present the list of normative acts to be approved, or draft Government decisions, or draft laws that are required in order to complete the decentralization process. The normative acts are under development and will be forwarded from one Ministry to the next to complete the approval cycle. In ten days, the documents will be submitted to the Government for review," Boc said.