The relevant draft regulations for the reformatting were signed by the former Prime Minister Dorin Recean, as the Council’s activity under the previous Cabinet of Ministers had reached a dead end. Talks about the necessary organizational changes of the collegial body, which turned out to be “superfluous”, have been going on for a long time. But only now the government has put up for discussion its vision of its mission.
According to the reasoning, it should be to control the executive branch’s compliance with “the principles of proper regulation and ensuring a more competitive business environment, compared to other countries in the region and the EU, in the implementation of the Reform Program”.
Adapting the Economic Council’s activities to the new realities will require “increasing its credibility in the business environment, flexibility and speed of decisions, taking into account the need to address a number of problems”. For this purpose, the advisory body will be assigned new functions and responsibilities, as well as access to financial resources, which, if necessary, will be used for technical assistance and additional expertise of draft decisions of state bodies.
It is also “important to have a positive climate in the working bodies of the Council, mutual understanding between the Council’s leadership and the Secretariat of the Council”. The “friendly atmosphere” is to be ensured not only by financial sources, but also by the composition. Members of the Council will be appointed, as before, by the Prime Minister from among representatives of business associations, research community, international organizations working in the field of reforming the business environment, and government agencies. Membership is voluntary.
In particular, the group of experts may include “civil servants – responsible advisers and employees of the apparatuses of public office holders, in accordance with their areas of activity and reform topics promoted through the Economic Council,” according to the government.
