5.10 Current debates and reforms
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Forthcoming policy developments
After debates on several amendments of the Youth Law, organised in 2016, the Ministry of Youth and Sports drafted and proposed for consultation in May 2017 and in May 2018 a new Youth Law:
- introducing a section devoted to community youth centres, setting them up for young people to benefit from integrated and personalized youth services
- introducing measures to be put in place to ensure the social protection of young people, foster social inclusion and professional insertion. The draft Law on Youth will prevent and sanction any form of discrimination.
- establishing consultative councils at the level of the county's county municipalities, the county councils and the Ministry of Youth and Sports with the purpose of an effective implementation of the youth policy.
The bill has been first presented to the government in September 2017 but withdraw and redrafted in 2018. However, the major reforms have been preserved. After months of debates at institutional level, the bill has been eventually approved by the Government in July 2018. Th bill was debated and approved by the first chamber of the Romanian Parliament (the Senate) in November 2018 and is currently (in March 2022) under debate by the Chamber of Deputies specialised committees. According to art. 75 (points 1 and 2) of the Romanian Constitution, the Chamber of Deputies is the final authority for the adoption of the project. The specialised Commission on Youth and Sport of the Chamber of Deputies advanced the report on the adoption of the project, and it had been on the adoption agenda of the meeting on November 2nd 2021 but an additional report had been requested from the specialised Commission on Youth and Sport of the Chamber of Deputies.
The law was eventually adopted by the Parliament in June 2022. A few days later the Ombudsman challenges the new law in front of the Romanian Constitutional Court. The Court postponed several times the debate on the constitutionality of the new Youth Law and the Decision was issued on 14 February 2024.The Constitutional Court referred the bill back to the Parliament. Some revisions are needed in order to align the bill with the Romanian Constitution.
In 2021 a new Youth Strategy was expected, with a few debates on the strategy initiated in 2020 based on a research paper prepared and presented by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to the National Council for Youth (the advisory body organised by the Ministry in 2020). In December 2020 a needs assessment has been provided by the Life Quality Institute to support the elaboration of the strategy in 2021. A draft strategy was presented for inter-institutional consultation in 2021 and debated by the National Council for Youth (NCFY), the advisory structure of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, in March 2021. In 2022, the consultation processes with the governmental and non-governmental organisations were rare. A new series of meetings started in March 2023. In March 2024 the strategic process is ongoing and the new Youth Strategy is under final consultation with the Government Ministries and other institutions.
The rules on citizens participation to decision making are one of the subjects of the forthcoming reform of the administrative procedure, through an administrative procedure code supported by an European funded project.
Debates on electronic and internet voting are increasingly salient in Romania, however, there are no official initiatives in this respect.