After more than 30 years, the Romanian state is taking a first step towards normality in its relationship with its citizens and is finally assuming the reforms required by the European Court of Human Rights.
In the framework of the project "The State Equal to the Citizen", The Foundation for the Defence of Citizens against State Abuses (FACIAS) has asked the state institutions to adopt the necessary procedures to simplify and accelerate the process of recovering claims established by enforceable titles against public institutions and authorities.
When Romanian citizens are owed money, property or other benefits by the state, they can "enjoy" a long period of time simply sitting on a long waiting list. On the other hand, when it is the citizen who owes something to the Romanian state, the latter is very prompt and efficient.
For years, Romania has delayed reforms and measures for which there have been multiple condemnations at the ECHR, and one of these problems is the lack of domestic legislation on the recovery of debts owed by public institutions, a situation which has led to new condemnations of Romania and, implicitly, the payment of new damages.
Recently, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă announced the start of a wide-ranging process to correct the shortcomings in the implementation of ECHR decisions against Romania.
Through the project "The State Equal to the Citizen", FACIAS has called for measures and solutions from all relevant institutions, leading to equality between the citizen and the Romanian state, to real progress by Romania, which through its representatives must comply with its obligation to respect, defend and implement human rights, democracy and the rule of law in a consistent and coherent manner.
Harmonisation of domestic legislation with the provisions of the ECHR is an important first step towards resolving the many problems in this area, and FACIAS stresses the need to approve and adopt the draft legislation as a matter of urgency.
On Wednesday, 23 November, The Foundation for the Defence of Citizens against State Abuses asked the Prime Minister to prioritise the draft legislation, which concerns the amendment of the Government Decision No. 22/2002, so that the debtor public institution pays its debts to the citizen with the same promptness, in accordance with the requirements of the ECHR in this field, and will closely follow the evolution and impact of future actions of the responsible state authorities.