Within the Government, the responsibilities for drafting, promoting and implementing cultural policies belong, primarily, to the Ministry of Culture and National Identity. The overall policy objectives and main activities that should be carried out by the Ministry of Culture and National Identity are set forth in G.D. no. 90/2010 with its subsequent revisions and in the Governing Programme adopted by Parliament (currently the Governing Programme covers the period 2018-2020 as described supra in chapter 2.3.).
The Ministry of Culture and National Identity also has overall responsibility for the management of the state budget allocated for its own operations and activities as well as for all its subordinated public cultural institutions. Another area of major importance that falls within the competence of the Ministry of Culture and National Identity is that of drafting and proposing to the Government primary and secondary legislation and the adoption of specific rules and regulations to facilitate the implementation of the aforementioned legislation.
In order to fulfil its mission, the Ministry of Culture and National Identity relies on several standing committees/commissions created by special legal provisions with a view to help with the drafting of sectoral/sub-sectoral policies, legislation and regulations, as well as of professional rules and guidelines. These standing committees/commissions also play an important part in the decision-making process, mainly in the field of heritage protection and public forum monuments. Their members are recognized as specialists in their respective fields proposed by the various categories of stakeholders and nominated by the Minister for renewable two-year mandates. These commissions are:
- National Commission for Historical Monuments (with its eight subordinated regional commissions). It has a decision-making role with respect to classification/declassification of historical monuments on a basis of professional criteria. Its decisions are formalised by an administrative order of the minister.
- National Commission of Archaeology. It has similar competences to those of the National Commission for Historical Monuments, but with respect to archaeological sites.
- National Commission of Museums and Collections. It decides upon the classification/declassification of moveable cultural goods. It issues rules for: the trade of moveable cultural goods, their conservation and restoration as well as for the accreditation of experts and specialised laboratories.
- National Commission of Libraries. It issues rules and methodologies for the overall activity of the national system of libraries including university and school libraries (with or without legal personality).
- National Commission for Public Forum Monuments. It analyses and issues the reports required for the approval of the placement of public forum monuments.
- National Commission for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. It issues criteria and standards for identification, evaluation, conservation and valorisation of intangible cultural heritage and cultural expressions of communities. It also issues the title of “living human treasures” and proposes elements of intangible cultural heritage to be enrolled on the UNESCO list.
In each of the 41 counties of Romania, as well as in Bucharest, the Ministry of Culture and National Identity has its own decentralised services (County Directorates for Culture and National Identity). These services connects the Ministry and local authorities, and operate under the coordination of the county “Prefect” (the person representing the Government at the county level). Their main activities are related to the supervision of the state of conservation, the restoration and valorisation of cultural heritage, irrespective of the ownership regime applicable.
While the cultural sector, at the national level, is mainly funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Identity, there are other ministries that allocate funds for the provision of various cultural services: Ministry of National Defence (for historical monuments, museums, cultural centres), Ministry of National Education (for artistic and vocational education and training), Ministry of Research and Innovation (for research activities related to culture), Ministry of Internal Affairs (for the National Archives, cultural centres and folklore orchestras), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through the network of the Romanian Cultural Institute) ensures the promotion of Romanian culture abroad. The promotion of Romanian culture is at the same time one of core activities and funding priorities of the Romanian Cultural Institute which is not part of the Government, but operates under Parliamentary control, alongside with three other main autonomous cultural bodies: National Audiovisual Council, Romanian Radio Society and Romanian Television Society.
The Romanian Office for Copyrights is directly subordinated to the Government and coordinated by the Ministry of Culture. It is the sole regulatory authority, which keeps records via national registries; it also has competences of supervision, authorisation, arbitration and technical and scientific endorsement in the field of copyrights and connected rights.
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