Overregulation is a big problem in Romania and I would say that we are more Catholic than the Pope, that is, we make things more complicated than the European Union (EU) requires, Chairmanof the Trade Competition Council, Bogdan Chiritoiu said on Wednesday at the Impact Bucharest 2025 event.
"I guess we like regulations. We may like our regulations, but we don't like the regulations of other agencies. We have been involved in many projects to remove the regulations of other agencies. We work with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). We had a successful program with the OECD to simplify, democratise the sectors. Recently, we made recommendations on authorisations for energy investments. We have also started a project with the OECD to simplify the licencing of production projects. We are doing a lot of work to remove the regulations of other authorities. And sometimes we even want to analyse ourselves. So, we have been very careful about how long it takes us to approve mergers and, more recently, to approve foreign investment. We get involved in both and we maintain them, so to speak, within reasonable timeframes. In principle, everyone is in favour of reducing bureaucracy. Ministries are like silos, they are not used to cooperating with each other, and coalition governments do not help. When you have coalition governments, of course, it is much more difficult for ministries to see the logic of cooperation," Chiritoiu said.
According to the official, overregulation is a big problem in Romania, "that is, we make things even more complicated than the EU would require."
"I completely agree with all the criticisms of the European model, but it is indeed difficult to change it. Therefore, I wish the European Commission every success in removing the regulations, simplifying the regulations that they introduced in the previous tenure. I am confident that, over time, Europe will find a way to improve all this. Overregulation is a big problem here too. I would say that we are more Catholic than the Pope, that is, we make things even more complicated than the EU would require. Usually, everyone goes to the authority and says: Yes, but it's an EU rule. We can't change anything because this is from the EU!' Which is true, but not entirely true... On the other hand, whenever a disaster strikes, they say, Well, actually, the meeting wasn't right, so there aren't enough regulations.' The tendency is to deregulate, but every time an unfortunate event occurs, the tendency will be to restrict regulations."
He added that deregulation is "the cheap way to try to boost the economy" because "it doesn't cost money."
"In Romania, we have done very well in terms of GDP, but I think we are in a kind of middle-income trap. The eurozone is not doing so well, Germany is no longer pulling us up as it used to, and we, in Romania, have exhausted the instrument of spending money to generate growth. We have a huge government deficit and very little growth to show. So, to me, deregulation is the cheap way to try to boost the economy. Deregulation doesn't cost you money. It is something that belongs to us and we can do it ourselves."
Renowned experts and leaders from the business community, representatives of the public sector from Romania and from the countries of South-Eastern Europe participate, between September 17 and 18, in the second edition of the Impact Bucharest event.
Discussions during the two days of the conference will be focused on economic development, innovation and how connecting local, regional and global ecosystems can benefit Romania.
Also on the agenda will be topics ranging from defence and cybersecurity, sustainable transformation, digitalisation, the future of cities, to the development of the global economy and the banking sector, leadership, healthcare, marketing and digital commerce.
Among the 200 speakers at the event will be former first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.
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