The Foundation for the Defense of the Citizen Against State Abuses (FACIAS) reported last year in an official letter and in a preliminary complaint to the Romanian Government that Romania loses millions of euros annually in the form of fines received from the European Commission due to failure of not implementing European directives on time.
Following FACIAS's request, the Government issued a reply admitting that there is a problem and that it is necessary to "strengthen the administrative capacity of the authorities responsible for transposing and applying EU legislation". However, the Government representative says that the Executive cannot impose a standard working procedure, as requested by FACIAS, because this would not respect the principle of separation of powers.
FACIAS appreciates the openness of this institution, however, it cannot help but notice that the Government's response bypasses a solution within the reach of the authorities, namely the adoption of a law establishing such a single procedure for all institutions responsible for implementing EU directives.
FACIAS has also pointed out that last year Romania had to pay 3 million euros for failure to implement a single directive and that public money, which is lost because of these irregularities, could be used to invest in Romania if the institutions would do their job and the people involved in these procedures would be held accountable for the faulty or late performance of their duties.
As always, FACIAS will continue to pursue its efforts to get those responsible find effective solutions to this problem. We will continue monitoring this case and will ask the courts with decision-making powers to oblige the relevant state institutions to generate procedures, which, when applied, will substantially reduce the possibility of Romania paying fines of millions of euros.
