People say, I didn’t count, that there are more than 800 laws in force, according to which the Romanian state requires copies of documents issued by the entire Romanian state through various organizations. Through these laws the tyranny of paper, post-CI copy and railway file is regulated. Technology and digitization brought us a glimmer of hope and since then, citizens and entrepreneurs are still waiting for a miracle. Romania literally suffers from the weight of paper, consider that the Town Hall of Sector 1 uses 5 million A4 sheets annually, and Sector 6 no less than 9 million sheets, a total of about 350 tons. And Bucharest has more mayors than we need.

On December 7, the authorized voice of Minister Burduzhi from the Ministry of the Future trumpeted on social networks: “no files with rails, no copies of documents, no photocopier in state institutions. All this is possible after today’s victories in the parliament! Mark your calendars for December 7 so the railway file doesn’t die.” Some even rushed to congratulate, but others remembered. On October 13, 2021, a LAW was approved to add to the extraordinary government decree No. 41/2016 on establishing simplification measures at the level of central state administration and to introduce changes and additions to some regulatory acts. ()

The legislative proposal, initiated by MP George Tutze along with 101 other parliamentarians, would have meant that government agencies would no longer be able to request copies of documents. The law prohibits state institutions and specialized bodies of central state administration from demanding from individuals or legal entities, in order to resolve requests for the provision of a public service, a copy of notices or other documents issued by state institutions or specialized bodies. central state administration”. Sent to Kotrochen for promulgation, the law was supposed to enter into force in January 2022.

To shed some light, two different measures were approved on 7 December: amendments to Law No. 290/2004 on criminal records and amendments to Emergency Decree No. 41/2016 () to establish simplification measures at the level of the central public administration. The first regulation will simplify the process of obtaining a criminal record certificate, which will be issued free of charge in digital format, possibly also via gişeul.ro. Obtaining a criminal record certificate has been simplified since last year (after the modernization of the criminal record information system – ROCRIS), by filling out the application directly in the computer system of the authorities and issuing it on the same day. Even so, in an already simplified case and without a track record, the new law needs promulgation and another 180 days for effective implementation. This means that the deadline is the summer of next year.

The second, however, is somewhat more revolutionary and introduces several provisions according to which “a local or central public administration may not require natural or legal persons to resolve public service requests, files, files with rails, as well as any what other items, office or stationery supplies;” digital copies of documents can be sent as a single electronic point of contact.The deadline for publication and implementation is the same.

This is not exactly digitalization, but a step forward. Apparently. Government agencies will buy the files in bulk because the law prohibits the request, not the use.

Let’s say the railway file died in Romania, seems to me an example of “toxic positivity” or hiding garbage behind doors. The two laws mentioned above, the initiators of which deserve our full admiration, represent the beginning, and by no means the end. This is because the real problem in Romania is not the railway file itself, but the mentality and anachronistic procedures designed for a world based on paper, not bytes. Comment by Contributors.ro