Publicat pe 13/10/2022

This press release is a right of reply to the AmCham material entitled: “A new attempt to subordinate the bilateral chambers of commerce”, published on October 13, 2022, and picked up by several online publications from the mass media in Romania, via which the CCIR is accused of trying to subordinate the bilateral chambers in Romania. At the same time, this press release can be taken over by any press body in Romania that operates on the basis of the Journalist’s Code of Ethics.

Bucharest, October 13, 2022: Law no. 335 of the chambers of commerce in Romania, in force since 2007, stipulates that the approval of the competent ministry and the approval of the National Chamber shall be attached to the application for registration (in the register of associations and foundations).

According to the same law, the bilateral Chambers are created in order to develop Romania’s economic relations with the countries for which they were created and to promote, defend and support the economic interests of the business community in relation to public authorities and bodies in the country and abroad.

The purpose and considerations of the project to amend Law no. 335/2007 (PL-x no. 527/2022) from the perspective of the bilateral chambers are presented in detail in the statement of reasons, published on the websites of the two Chambers of the Parliament, which describes the current situation and the opportunity for a new regulation.

Although the law expressly and limitingly stipulates who has the right to use the phrase “chamber of commerce” in the name, the National Chamber/CCIR found many cases in which there are legal entities, some registered in the public registers before the appearance of the current regulation, some subsequently registered, which have the phrase “chamber of commerce” in their name and which, although the stated and assumed statutory purpose is the same as that provided by law, is not exercised nor proven by the specific activities that attest to their reason for existing.

There are also situations in which entities with the purpose declared by statute as corresponding to that provided by law, manage to “avoid” the law by adopting names such as “chamber of economic diplomacy” and its derivatives, which have no other purpose than that to no longer go through the verification procedures specific to the granting of the approvals required by law (appendix the opinion of the relevant ministry and the opinion of the National Chamber) and, implicitly, not to be able to be verified from the perspective of carrying out specific activities according to the declared purpose.

Pursuant to the law, the CCIR has repeatedly requested the legal entities that are organized and operate as bilateral chambers for the updated legal situation, the activity reports for previous years, the activities and major actions undertaken in recent years that concern the development of Romania’s economic relations with the state for which they were established, the activity and development plan for the current year, the concrete achievements regarding the development of Romania’s economic relations with the states for which they were established, and the way regarding the promotion, defense and support of the economic interests of the business community in relation to the authorities public and with the bodies from the country and abroad.

In the process of streamlining the economic diplomacy component, the CCIR analyzes (based on inter-institutional collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the representative ministry for the business environment, as well as with the diplomatic representations of various countries) revealed in many cases the total lack of activity (or even of response to CCIR requests) from bilateral Chambers (or similar entities) on the relations with the countries for which they were established, regardless of the moment of acquisition of legal personality by them relative to the moment of the appearance of the regulation by the Romanian chambers of commerce law, in the year 2007.

By referring to the legal provision regarding the fact that there cannot be two or more bilateral chambers on the territory of Romania regarding the same states, a real problem arises when there is an initiative to establish a bilateral chamber, in the context shown, in which there is already an established such an entity (registered in the public registers with the statutory purpose corresponding to that of a bilateral chamber according to the law), but which no longer carries out any specific activity by reference to at least the last year of existence. The result is that a new bilateral chamber cannot be constituted as long as the pre-existing one is in existence, according to the public registers, which does not carry out activity and, implicitly, does not respect the purpose according to which it operates and, implicitly, is not dissolved, liquidated and, finally, deleted from the public registers.

In the current legislative context, the CCIR has promoted to the courts multiple requests with the object of the obligation to change the name of these entities by removing the phrase chamber of commerce from the name. The requests of the CCIR were admitted, but it was not possible to carry out the provisions of the judgments thus pronounced, motivated by the fact that it was not possible to proceed with the forced execution in the conditions where the legal entities in question were non-existent in fact, the relevant ministry (in this case Ministry of Justice) not having a legal basis for carrying out the devices of such decisions. Another approach to the situation shown was the request by the CCIR for the judicial dissolution of the respective associations – bilateral chambers of commerce, these dissolution requests having won the case, final decisions were issued by which the requested dissolution was ordered. Not being liquidated, the entities continued to exist, thus blocking the possibility of establishing another bilateral chamber.

As the courts have repeatedly found, the immediate consequence of non-compliance with the legal provisions by the entities that bear the phrase “chamber of commerce” in their name is both the creation of confusion in the environment of economic relations between the autonomous organizations recognized as having public utility and the damage the image and reputation of other such organizations, including the other chambers of commerce that were established and operate in compliance with the legal provisions in the matter. That is why, for the legal entities established as bilateral chambers of commerce, the goal envisaged by the legislator was one of strict interpretation transposed by the imperative provisions of the law in the sense that “on the territory of Romania there cannot be two or more bilateral chambers regarding the same states. It is mandatory for the bilateral chambers established on the territory of Romania that one of the states is Romania”.

The new regulation (PL-x no. 527/2022) proposes to strengthen the role and importance of the National Chamber in the effort to relaunch economic diplomacy and, equally, the ways of managing the situation of bilateral chambers, including through the register of bilateral chambers, instrument with the role of evidence and synthesis, all of which have as their intended results the development and efficiency of interstate economic relations from the perspective of the development of the internationalization of the business environment, the attraction and capitalization of foreign direct investments in Romania and, implicitly, the reduction of the trade deficit.

For the reasons shown, provided in detail, as we previously showed, in the instrument of motivation of the legislative project, the proposed regulation does not in any way affect the bilateral Chambers or other established associative forms or their rights as guaranteed by the Constitution.

The draft law refers exclusively to those initiatives, which, after the establishment of a bilateral chamber, based on a momentary opportunity or favorable situation, abandon it and no longer carry out any specific activity. The entity, called a bilateral chamber or an association with a similar purpose, continues to exist from a legal point of view, provided it is not dissolved and liquidated, thus taking the place of another initiative through which it could really relaunch and develop bilateral economic relations.

The National Chamber does not try and does not want to subordinate anyone, on the contrary, it maintains its full institutional appreciation for all established entities that contribute fully to the smooth running of bilateral commercial relations and, implicitly, economic diplomacy.

The register of bilateral chambers, as a new instrument, proposed in the project in the Parliament, has no other purpose than to highlight the desired results consisting in the development and efficiency of interstate economic relations from the perspective of the development of the internationalization of the business environment, the attraction and capitalization of foreign direct investments in Romania and, implicitly, the reduction of the trade deficit.

The results of the specific activity of the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania, the Romanian-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chamber of Commerce for Belgium, Luxembourg, Romania and Moldova, the Romanian-British Chamber of Commerce, the Swiss-Romanian Chamber of Commerce, the French Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Romania, the Italian Chamber of Commerce for Romania, the Romanian-Dutch Chamber of Commerce, the Romanian Businessmen’s Association, the Council of Foreign Investors, as well as the Romanian Business Leaders, are fully appreciated and recognized by the business community in Romania and, implicitly, by the CCIR, the National Chamber which wishes to continue to maintain good collaborative relations with them.

In this context, we are convinced that none of these and also any other associative organization established for the purpose of a bilateral chamber in Romania will not be affected by the highlighting of their own, concrete and recognized results, targeting exclusively bilateral relations in a register kept by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania.