Informal Civic Organisations in Romania

Over the last couple of years, Romanians' sense of civic responsibility has given rise to a growing number of informal organisations.

Christine Leșcu, 11.11.2015, 12:55

Over the last couple of years, Romanians’
sense of civic responsibility, long suppressed by the memory of communist
oppression, has given rise to more and more informal organizations. These are
grassroots groups of people who share a common affiliation or are concerned
with a specific issue. For instance, Iasi loves linden trees is a group in
Iasi, northern Romania, which emerged as a form of protest against the City
Hall’s decision to cut down the city’s famous linden trees, and managed to
develop a project to replant linden tree saplings. Similarly, many districts in
Bucharest are represented by one or several informal groups. The Favorit Initiative, Save the Drumul
Taberei Park, Save the IOR Park are but a few names of organizations
militating for various causes. According to data included in the project titled
Strengthening the Capacity of NGOs and Informal Organizations carried out by
the Foundation for an Open Society, there are a total of 513 informal
organizations in Romania, of which 48 emerged spontaneously, while 465 were
established with state support or with private funds owned by umbrella
corporations.

Romania’s civic awareness needs a boost, says the coordinator of
the project Marinela Andrei:

The ratio of
informal groups who are financed as against groups that emerged spontaneously
is 10 to 1. Our main conclusion is that the spontaneous activity of citizens
and their civic awareness is quite limited, although it has begun to gain
momentum and to become visible in the public sphere. Most financed groups have
activities that usually regard the resolution of a local issue, pertaining to
infrastructure, whether we’re talking about roads, bridges or buildings
(kindergartens or schools).

These organizations sign petitions and
demand consultations. Some gain in reputation, succeeding in reaching out to
local authorities. But their status as a partner of the administration is hard
to get, partly also due to the fact that these informal groups don’t have a
well regulated legal capacity. However, their members don’t see this fact as a
priority. Here is sociologist Valentin Burada, who co-authored the report on
The Activity of Informal Civic Groups in Romania.

Valentin Burada: The main
issue is not related to the formal or judicial registration of these groups,
but to their need of being recognized, including by public authorities. The
feedback coming from these informal groups suggests that the real problem is
working with public authorities. Their status can be sometimes hard to
acknowledge, and might lead to creating problems rather than solutions.
Besides, their recognition by the authorities is often done based on a long
history of common action of its members, their participation in meetings of the
local councils, on their involvement in public actions, sometimes even street
demonstrations, by means of which their status can be recognized.

The
Resource Center for Public Participation, whose acronym in Romanian is CERE, is
one of the associations that have supported the setting up of a great many
civic initiative groups. CERE does not share the opinion whereby additional
regulations are needed, like, for instance, putting one’s name on an open list
created by municipalities or local councils. Why?

Here is CERE Program
Coordinator Sanziana Dobre with an
answer:

One of the conclusions of the survey that we
do not agree with is the idea of
setting up a registration procedure with the public institution targeted by the
informal groups. Such a procedure would be similar to the idea of being
accredited with that institution. Prior to initiating the steps they need to
take to be received in audience or to get an appointment for various meetings,
people should therefore register. We do not think this is necessary. We believe
that would dishearten civic groups from starting their action, since their
experience begins with the first
hearing sessions. Imposing on those groups to take an extra step prior to that,
is not at all helpful.. Besides, that would bring more red-tape to the process
of negotiation with the authorities, which is still in its infancy and which
should be allowed to grow at its own pace.

However, there are suggestions that are
quite welcome, focusing on increasing the informal groups’ efficiency. Here
is Sanziana Dobre again:

Most
welcome is the other set of conclusions, supporting the idea that groups may
also be entitled to asking for public debates within the legal framework of the
law regarding the transparency of the decision-making process. Such a law
stipulates that local authorities should have consultations with the NGOs,
prior to taking certain decisions. It would be better if informal groups
participated in those consultations as
well. One thing that can be achieved is to set up meeting areas, because a
great challenge for all those who are a part of such a group is something like
where shall we meet? They cannot meet in cafes all the time. For some, it may
be too expensive. Besides, there’s too much noise in there and it may not be
the perfect place for talks and planning. So setting up meeting or public areas
for such talks would be most welcome.

However, the conclusion everyone has drawn
is that encouraging civic initiative mainly has to do with an increase in the
civic education level: people will find the courage to approach and talk to the authorities as soon as they learn what
their rights are. With details on that, here is Valentin Burada.

Problems arise rather
from the low level of civic education and Romanians’ participatory tradition
and less from the lack of legislation or the legal instruments that might
support that civic involvement. There are flaws as regards the enforcement of
the legislation on citizens’ access to public information and citizens’
participation in the decision-making process. Informal groups have their role
in that. It was suggested that acting as encouragement mechanisms for civic
involvement are the increase in the level of civic education, but also putting
pressure on the authorities, so that they can comply with the legislation in
force and create mechanisms for the citizens’ real involvement in the
decision-making process.

Despite all the aforementioned flaws, civic
initiative activities are growing in number and intensity, and the trend is
definitely upward in that respect.