SOME PUBLIC POLICY INSTRUMENTS INITIATED IN ROMANIA IN THE COVID-19 CONTEXT

Ensuring the convergence in the process of the Romanian economic and social environment adaptation, to the requirements of internal market of European Union, but also the alignment of public policies with good practices of European Union, led to the emergence of new types of policies and instruments, for different fields of implementation, in the new conjuncture. As a consequence the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, governments all over the world, imposed restrictions intended for the protection of population, with effects on the economic and social life. In Romania, the government's intervention policies consisted of actions aimed at preventing the collapse in the national economy, materialized in plans, programs and measures, supported by laws and Government Decisions, which constitutes as basic instruments of the period 2020-2021. The present paper tries to present, in a synthetic manner, two essential public policy instruments used in Romania, to combat the negative effects caused by pandemic crisis, respectively, National Recovery and Resilience Plan and National Reform Programme 2021. The conclusions and proposals which ends the paper express the essence of the results obtained. The research methodology used was the documentation from specialty literature, focus on significant issues, synthesis and processing of information, through the author’ own interpretation.


Introduction
In Romania, the emergence of new more complex domains for public policy implementation, formed on the basis of the new requirements of development led to the extension of their scope, that enriched with a wide range of policies and instruments directed towards new fields of activity. Financing public polices needs internal financial resources (Stoica C. and Moisoiu C., 2007, p. 520). The alignment of public policies with good practices of European Union, caused by the requirements of European Union led to the emergence of new types of policies and instruments, for different fields of implementation, to answer the new conditions of development. Among others, it has been aimed at ensuring the convergence in the process of the Romanian economic and social environment adaptation, to the requirements of internal market of European Union (Stoica and Moisoiu, 2007, p. 521). It could be highlighted more situations of public policy-making (Stoica and Moisoiu, 2007, p. 520): ⇒ Development of certain policies already known, such as trade policy, monetary and fiscal policy; ⇒ New policy making, in the new conjuncture of development: regional development policy and competition policy or other public policies, such as those of knowledge-based economy; ⇒ The possibility that the component elements of a certain policy to become public policies, such as the food security policy. ⇒ New policy making, by joining with other types: the policy of development through external trade, policy of development through poles of competitiveness. Public policy elaborating, administration and implementation aims at sustaining the optimal running of some sectors of activity and elimination of malfunctions of activity (Stoica C. and Moisoiu C., 2007, p. 520). Following the request of the European Commission, the World Bank, in Romania, the public policy term was institutionalized. This has undergone changes in the administration level, which have materialized in the "transition from a perspective oriented towards keeping institutions, to one oriented towards the results of their activity" 1 . The main institutions and authorities concerned in the process of public policy formulation, at the national level, are: the Parliament, Legislative Council, the Cabinet of Prime Minister, General Secretariat of the Government (GSG), Public Policy Units (PPU) at ministers′ level, the Permanent Inter-Ministerial Councils 2 . The proposals concerning public policies precede the stage of elaboration of the normative acts for their application. For that purpose, the elaboration of the appropriate legislative framework is initiated and finalized, at the level of government and relevant bodies 3 . In Romania, there have been concernments for the development of legislative

Public policies, instruments developed for sustaining national economy, in pandemic crises
The world economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis have been significant, affecting the economic growth in the context of the restrictions imposed by government measures to protect the population. The effect was felt throughout the production circuit, with an impact on jobs, incomes, the evolution of demand and supply 6 . balance the economy, affected by the interruption of the activity of some economic sectors. 7 These interventions have materialized in plans, programs and measures, have been supported by laws and Government Decisions, included in national plans and programs which are made up as basic instruments of the period 2020-2021 8 .

National Recovery and Resilience Plan
At European Union level, a financial instrument, #NextGenerationEU, was developed with a value of EUR 750 billion 9  The principles of implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 17 consist in the equitable distribution of funds, means economic recover through investments and reforms at the level of the whole country. An equitable allocation of resources can lead to the preservation and capitalization of heritage. The principle of decentralization works which means that central and local authorities take responsibility for carrying out reforms, in order to achieve the green and digital transition and increasing resilience 18 . National Recovery and Resilience Plan for Romania (NRRP) has six pillars comprising fifteen areas associated with them.

National Reform Programme (NRP) 2021
The National Reform Program (NRP) is another instrument with the significance of a "framework platform", designed to initiate policies to address the problems observed in the European Semester. Resilience Plan, which is, also, a strategic instrument considering the reformes required for recovery and growth 35 .

Conclusions
In Romania, along with the alignment with the good practices of European Union, the emergence of new more complex domains for public policies implementation, formed on the basis of the new requirements of development led to the extension of their scope, that enriched with a wide range of policies and instruments directed towards new fields of activity (Stoica C. and Moisoiu C., 2007, p. 520, 521).
The proposals concerning public policies precede the stage of elaboration of the normative acts for their application. For that purpose, the elaboration of the appropriate legislative framework is initiated and finalized, at the level of government and relevant bodies In Romania, there were concernments for the development of legislative framework for the public policy formulation, at central level 36 . The world economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis have affected the economic growth in the context of the restrictions imposed by government′s measures to protect the population. The effect was felt throughout the production circuit, with an impact on jobs, incomes, the evolution of demand and supply 37 . The consequences felt in economic and social field, in Romania and the magnitude of the pandemic challenges draw attention on the potential of resilience to the shocks of the crisis, at institutional and economic level 38 . The government's intervention policies consisted of actions aimed at preventing the collapse in the Romanian economy, initiatives to help companies and provide the necessary resources to finance companies, measures taken to keep the jobs of employees who have suffered temporary interruptions, public investment in order to balance the economy, affected by the interruption of the activity of some economic sectors. 39 These interventions have materialized in plans, programs and measures, have been supported by laws and Government Decisions, included in national plans and programs which are constituted as basic instruments of the period 2020-2021 40 .