In 1992 in the Prime Minister office established a Unit for cooperation with civil society. After the change of government in 2000, the Office for Government–NGO relations (under the Directorate for Protocol of the General Secretariat of the Government) was reorganized as Department for Institutional and Social Analysis headed by a Secretary of State under the Prime Minister. The Department (DAIS) has worked since February 2001 to provide information on NGO activity, to support their initiatives, and to facilitate the NGO consultations with the government and has co-sponsored NGO events, supported NGO proposals to the Government, and served as a channel for communication between NGOs and policy makers.
In 2009, the new Government restructured this structure and they dissolved DAIS. After some NGOs protested, the office was reestablished under the name of the Unit for Governmental Strategies.
Although the Office of Public Information and Relations with Civil Society in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies (lower chamber of Parliament) was nearly dissolved in the beginning of 2000 due to rising pressure for the Chamber to reduce personnel costs, it survived and continues to provide effective services to the NGO community. A group of human rights NGOs have demanded similar access to legislative documents in the Senate, but there has been no progress so far.
In the case of the Government’s office, the head of the Unit is reporting to the one of the state advisers of the Prime Minister. The responsible in the Parliament on the other hand is reporting directly to the President of the Chamber. The development of the mechanism and the job description was the initiative of the NGOs with a big support from the European Commission Delegation and Embassies in Bucharest. The establishment of these offices was supported also financially through the Phare program for civil society 1996-1999.
As mention previously, in 2006 the Prime Minister Council for Associations and Foundations was established. Since then, at least one meeting per year took place, usually at the request of the NGOs representatives although the meetings were not very effective in terms of results.
In 2010 NGOs used the Council to negotiate 4 important issues for the NGO sector:
- Structuring the civil dialog
- 2011 the European Year of Volunteering
- Creating mechanisms for increasing the state funding
- Increasing the NGOs capacity in the absorption of structural funds.
On the other side, with the Chamber of Deputies there is underway the work on drafting social contracting law.
The office for Public Information and Relations with Civil Society in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies (lower chamber of Parliament) was established with EU funding under the Phare program for civil society (1994 – 1996) with a support of about 200 000 Euro. The mechanism from the Government and the Parliament are playing central role in the planning and the implementing of the distribution of funds.