Romania Action Plan Review 2025-2027

In 2025, Romania published its first Open Government Strategy and seventh national action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen.... The plan proposes promising steps to improve the transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More of political financeProviding for transparency in the funding of campaigns, political parties, and democratic politics is an essential accountability mechanism for democratic government and is a growing focus area in OGP... More and national investment funds, and pilot open government at the local level. The co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive... was inclusive, adopting new public consultation practices.

Romania’s seventh action plan includes 13 commitments. It builds on previous plans’ efforts on open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici..., political finance transparency, de-bureaucratization, national investment funds, local open government, and inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... More and genderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... More equality. New areas include reforms on the accessibility of the Romanian Gendarmerie, e-government services, and participation and transparency on infrastructure projects.

The plan aligns with broader strategies, including Romania’s first Open Government Strategy 2025–2030, the European Union’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan,^[1] and OECD recommendations.^[2] The co-creation process was led by the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG), accompanied by the National Coordination Committee (CNC)—Romania’s OGP multistakeholder forum. The action plan shares a similar level of ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... as the previous two plans.

Three commitments propose promising reforms. CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... 4 plans to enhance political finance transparency by addressing legislative gaps highlighted by civil society and the media following the 2024 presidential electionsImproving transparency in elections and maintaining the independence of electoral commissions is vital for promoting trust in the electoral system, preventing electoral fraud, and upholding the democr... More. Commitment 8 intends to publish data on all nationally funded investment programs, expanding on the previous action plan’s successful efforts to open data on two programs. Under Commitment 13—submitted to the Open Gov Challenge, three local authorities will pilot their own open government action plans. The remaining commitments either build on ongoing initiatives, seek to implement existing legal provisions, or plan to test new practices within a few institutions.

In terms of co-creation, the action plan was developed through an inclusive process. Innovations included public consultation on the co-creation calendar,  and the use of an online platform to solicit commitment proposals from the public as well as track progress and feedback in real time.

The start of co-creation was delayed by elections. The SGG opened the proposed co-creation calendar for public consultation in December 2024, followed by a six-month co-creation process. In January and February 2025, a public call gathered 28 commitment proposals—10 from civil society and 18 from government institutions. Over the next three months, the SGG facilitated iterative discussions with those who proposed commitments and relevant government institutions. The resulting draft action plan then went through a two-week public comment period. Participation in the CNC was sporadic, meeting once during the co-creation process to discuss and adopt the final action plan in June 2025. Three of the final 13 commitments originated from civil society proposals.

Following the co-creation process, the CNC began holding thematic working group meetings for each commitment and updated its structure. In 2025, it selected three alternate members from civil society who participate in all the plenary and thematic working group meetings but may not vote. This helped preempt any existing members’ potential withdrawal and ensured continuity and wider representation. In case a regular spot becomes vacant, an alternate member steps in.

Steady engagement on OGP will be essential to the action plan’s results. Following the vote of no confidence against the government in May 2026, the next government can reaffirm its support for open government and the implementation of commitments. Potential challenges include budget constraints, reconfiguration of CNC membership after co-creation,^[3] turnover in government decision-makers, political prioritization of open government issues, and understanding of open government among broader civil society.^[4] Implementation will depend on continued resourcing and support from technical staff. Involvement of government institutions at the decision-making level would help enable work planning and drive the direction of forthcoming activities. Certain commitments (3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13) would benefit from clarifying civil society’s expected role in implementation.

Romania’s new Open Government Strategy provides an opportunity to institutionalize the OGP process. It aims to increase the resources allotted to open government initiatives and enhance the SGG’s coordinating role. It also intends to strengthen the regulatory framework for open government, increase the use of digital platforms for transparency and civic participation, and improve civil society’s operating environment. The Strategy envisions establishing a multistakeholder National Committee for Open Government. Ensuring systematic cooperation between the National Committee and the CNC would provide a stronger basis for implementing this action plan.

Table 1. Promising Commitments