THE RECENT LEGAL EVOLUTION OF THE ROMANIAN PREFECT IN EUROPEAN CONTEXT: FROM SENIOR CIVIL SERVANT TO PUBLIC OFFICIAL

Abstract

The prefect has the essential role of creating a link between the central and the local public administration, being most frequently described with the phrase “the representative of the Government in the territory”. In the last two decades, the role, responsibilities and, especially, the juridical statute of the prefect have stirred debates. Recently, the Government has adopted an emergency ordinance that changes the statute of the prefect from senior civil servant, to public official with political affiliation. Arguments have been brought by specialists both in favour and against this change. Even though the institution of the prefect has been the subject of numerous analyses in the literature, this recent transformation demands a new one, focusing on both its impact, and its European context. However, thoroughly analysing the whole institution of prefecture, especially taking into account its whole historical evolution, is a rather vast undertaking. Therefore, in this paper, we limit ourselves to two objectives. Firstly, we aim to analyse the impact of this recent change on the main attributions of the prefect, such as on the administrative supervision of acts signed by local public authorities. Secondly, we set out to analyse comparatively the present legislative provisions of the prefect in Romania with the ones in other EU member states. In order to reach our objectives, we employ the logical and comparative methods, studying both the relevant legislation, as well as the national and international doctrine on the subject.

Keywords

• administrative law
• prefect
• civil servant
• public official
• european union