“Dialog between the business environment and the government has improved over the past two years, especially through the Coalition for the Development of Romania. There is dialog, there is a clear agenda, which is very important. It is a big step forward. But this is a less formal structure and structures created especially for social dialog don’t really work in Romania,” said van Groningen.
He added Romania still fails to do things transparently.
“We have Law 281 on decision transparency, which clearly regulates the way legislation should be adopted. It’s good to have laws but what good does that do if they are not observed,” added.
The local market has not reached the level of predictability and dialog the business environment wishes for, van Groningen said, adding the government has continued to adopt numerous emergency ordinances.
“There’s an emergency ordinance every three days. It’s a good sign that the number of ordinances was lower this year (73 from 115 last year). What’s important is to have better consultation, to observe transparency rules, to have impact studies for each proposition, not rush and allot more time for consultation. Steps are being taken but we haven’t reached a level that would help us create a more predictable environment and higher economic growth,” he said.
He added taxes introduced this year, such as the tax on special constructions and a rise in fuel excises, failed to produce the desired results because they lacked impact studies.
The Foreign Investors Council is one of the most important investor organizations in Romania and consists of 20 foreign-held companies that total two thirds of all foreign investments in Romania.