5. Participation
Most of the consultation of young people concerning youth policies in Romania is organised according to the law no. 52/2003 on decisional transparency, providing two important regulation on participation: (1) all public institutions initiating a normative act (with general applicability to a given territory, therefore a national or local regulation), have to publish a draft legislative proposal at least 30 days before its adoption and have to be opened to receiving comments and suggestions/amendments to the draft regulation from any citizen; (2) if a legally established organisation (NGO, trade union, employers organisation etc.) requires, the public institutions have to organise a public debate as a face-to-face (or online) opened meeting for all organisations and citizens interested in the legislation proposed.
At national level the National Council for Youth (NCFY) was established in 2020, including 50 representatives of youth civil society organisations, as the advisory structure of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The Ministry of Youth and Sports provides the secretariat of the NCFY. The Council is regulated by a Ministry Order. A new regulation of the Council is needed after the reorganisation of the youth policy responsibilities under the Ministry of Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities in January 2022, but it was not adopted until March 2022.
At local and county level, consultative councils have been funded and they are active and functional only in some municipalities or counties, depending on the commitment of the local authorities. More than half of the Counties Councils in Romania regulated the existence and functioning of county level consultative councils by County Council Decision (an official document at county level). Local Councils are also free to regulate consultative councils by their decision and in the last years more and more local youth strategies have been adopted and local councils have been established as formal consultation mechanisms with the youth. County and local youth councils are regulated following the model of the national one. However, these are consultative bodies, not representative bodies, as presented in sections 5.3. Youth representation bodies and 5.4. Young People's Participation in Policy-Making.
A law establishing the National Council of Youth from Romaniawas adopted in 2006 creating a representative structure of youth organisations (NGOs, trade unions, political parties youth branches etc.). However, the law was never implemented. The council was supposed to have both a representation and consultation role, but due to its very complicated and non-functional regulation it was never actually established.