COMUNICAT DE PRESĂ 20.05.2022
There are currently 29 European directives that Romania has not implemented, and we risk paying fines of millions of euros as a result of the state officials' indolence or incompetence. Who is to blame for these failures? Who is responsible for these fines?
The Foundation for the Defense of Citizens Against State Abuse (FACIAS) requested in February that the EU Directive 2019 / 2,161 be transposed into state legislation as soon as possible, and only today we celebrate the entrance into effect of the Emergency Ordinance transposing the respective directive into national law. The normative act allows citizens to request corrective actions in the event that traders impose abusive clauses. It imposes substantially tougher penalties on commercial operators that include abusive and unreasonable elements in framework contracts.
As FACIAS stated out at the beginning of the year, the procedure for integrating European Directives in domestic legislation remains tragic, with Romania being one of the EU nations with the most warnings and letters of delay from the European Commission for non-compliance with EU legislative requirements. Massive delays in the transposition and execution of EU Directives have resulted in harsh financial consequences against Romania worth millions of euros. Several infringement cases are already ongoing against the Romanian government for the over 30 directives that should have been transferred into legislation two years ago. In the end, millions of euros in fines will be paid by romanian citizens because NO ONE is held accountable for these delays. FACIAS asked Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca in February of this year to accelerate the procedures for transposing the directives into legal provisions and to take appropriate action against those responsible for the unjustified delays.
Within the objectives of the project "Incompetence or bad faith? Who is responsible for Romania's fines? ", FACIAS proposed the creation of a legal framework, modeled after the Law on the Liability of Magistrates in Case of Compensations Paid to the ECHR, by which politicians who do not exercise their duties in good faith and do not transpose European directives will be held accountable and, implicitly, the state, in order to recover the amounts of money paid as fines to the CJEU.