Romania has made progress in improving its business environment, but licensing remains a significant source of complexity and administrative burden, disproportionately affecting SMEs and start-ups. The licensing system is fragmented, with limited coordination across issuing authorities and limited consistency across licensing procedures. Information on licensing requirements is fragmented, difficult to understand, and inconsistent across institutions. The use of digital tools to obtain licences is limited, with only 51% of licences available online and lacking a unified platform. Administrative requirements are cumbersome, with multiple steps, paper copies of documents, and limited data sharing between institutions. The "once-only" principle is not consistently applied, leading to duplicative information requests. The process of renewing licences can be lengthy and cumbersome. The "silence is consent" principle is not applied in practice, creating uncertainty for entrepreneurs. Legal deadlines tend to be long, with actual processing times often shorter. Data on business licence applications and processing times is not systematically collected or analysed.
To address these issues, the report proposes a roadmap for simplifying business licensing procedures. Key recommendations include establishing a single Business Licensing Framework, setting up a centralised business licensing digital platform, and creating an institutional framework to implement the licensing reform. The framework could combine various measures and amendments into one single legislative package, introduce a risk-based business licensing approach, and amend the existing legislation establishing "silence is consent." The platform would allow businesses to apply, renew, and cancel licences online, access information, and track the progress of their applications. The Office for Industrial Licensing could be expanded to become the Office for Business Licensing, acting as a coordinator and responsible for the development of the platform. Inter-ministerial coordination mechanisms would be crucial to ensure coherence in reform design and implementation. These reforms are expected to make Romania’s business licensing system more efficient and conductive to growth and investment.
