Parliament approves establishment of select Committee on administrative code

Parliament approved on Wednesday by a vote of 210 to 90 the establishment of the joint select Committee on the drafting of the administrative code.

The Committee will be tasked with analyzing the current regulatory framework, the elaboration of projects and the centralization and examination of legislative initiatives relevant to this area. It can also act as the initiator of legislative proposals.

The Committee shall work on a period of 6 months, with the possibility to extend the deadline; its sessions are usually public.

The establishment of the committee came under fire from the National Liberal Party (PNL), Save Romania Union (USR) and People's Movement Party (PMP) representatives.

Liberal deputy Florin Roman said that instead of decentralizing the local administration, the draft administrative code centralizes it and that this move is equivalent to "treading with the boots" into the local autonomy, cautioning that this foreshadows the revival of local barons. "We turn the prefects into local Gods and the mayors become servants in the hands of abusive prefects. You have opened Pandora's box, but the tables will turn," Roman said, referring to the project initiated by the Social Democratic Party (PSD, major at rule - ed.n).

USR Senator Florina Presada argued that the draft administrative code is "an unimaginable legislative mess" and that the true intentions of the initiators of the draft administrative code are "politicizing the prefect's office, the administrative act, the heedlessness of public institution managers. This code does not solve at all the problems of public administration in Romania but deepens them," Presada said, adding that for PSD and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE, minor at rule - ed.n.) this project practically means the weakening of integrity criteria and anti-corruption criteria.

USR opposes the establishment of the committee, Presada underscored.

The Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Senator Cseke Attila said that the issue of the administrative code could be solved in a special commission and stressed that the Union desires the decentralization of the local government.

"The important thing is what we want from the administrative code. What we see in the project is centralization. (...) Is this what we want? (...) Do we want to strengthen the prefect's institution or not? We, at UDMR, do not want to strengthen the institution of the prefect," completed Cseke Attila.