The past two years have been rather difficult for the business community in Romania, despite high growth rates and good revenues. Large investors in Romania, like FIC members, take a long-term view and the picture does not look particularly positive. There is a clear lack of trust between the business environment and the government.
The level of consultation, which was not particularly good to start with, has sunk to being almost non-existent. Companies have had their business plans turned upside down by a long list of emergency ordinances which have far exceeded their constitutional limits: the introduction of split VAT, the transfer of contributions from employers to employees and Emergency Ordinance No. 114/2018 (EO 114/2018) which hit several crucial sectors like banking, energy and telecoms. Legislation was adopted without dialogue, without impact assessments and without even justifying an emergency need. Each time the business community issued stern warnings that the laws will be damaging. Our voice was listened, but only when negative effects were imminent.