In brief
- Machines, furniture and computers costing between 2,500 and 5,000 lei become claimable again for newly set-up social enterprises in Gorj, Hunedoara and Dolj. They had dropped out of the financing without the scheme being touched: from tax year 2026 an item worth 3,000 lei moved in accounting terms from fixed assets to inventory items, and the scheme rejected inventory items for payment without any exception.
- No sum and no date changes. Support stays between 100,000 and 300,000 euro per enterprise and covers at most 95% of the eligible expenditure, the budget stays at 18,951,350 euro for at most 80 enterprises, the duty to create and keep filled at least two jobs is unchanged, and the last day on which money can still be granted stays 31 August 2029.
- The programme changes its name, but the old name stays in the annex. From 18 September 2026 the title of the order speaks of the Sustainable Development and Just Transition Programme 2021-2027. In the annex that actually contains the scheme, the old name stays in place in eleven spots and the abbreviation PTJ in nineteen.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial), Part I, no. 792 of 18 September 2026, pages 14-15
In force from: 18 September 2026, the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania, because Article II provides for no later date and Article 12(3) of Law no. 24/2000 ties the entry into force of ministerial orders to the day of publication itself
An item worth 3,000 lei bought by a newly set-up social enterprise in Gorj, Hunedoara or Dolj can be claimed from European funds again. Order no. 1.426/2026 of the minister of investments and European projects, published on 18 September 2026, takes inventory items worth more than 2,500 lei off the list of expenditure that the scheme rejected for payment. It is the third operation of this kind in nine days, after the same correction was made to the scheme for developing social enterprises, where the 2,500 to 5,000 lei band became claimable again for companies in another five counties, and to the scheme for developing small and medium-sized enterprises, through Order no. 1.370/2026 in Official Gazette of Romania no. 767 of 9 September 2026.
The order has seven points and touches not a single leu. Three of them change the name of the programme, and the other four rewrite the same sentence in three different places in the scheme. In Article 14(a)(ii), which lists the activities that can be financed, the list of equipment, machinery, working installations, furniture and IT equipment is supplemented with goods in the category of inventory items that are worth more than 2,500 lei, have a normal operating life of more than one year and fit into one of the subgroups of the Catalogue approved by Government Decision no. 2.139/2004. The same addition goes into Article 17, among the categories of eligible expenditure. And in Article 19(1)(n), where inventory items were declared ineligible without any qualification, the exception that brings them back among the payable costs is added.
The hole this order plugs was not opened in a ministry but in the Tax Code. Government Emergency Ordinance no. 8/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 147 of 25 February 2026, rewrote Article 28(2)(b) of Law no. 227/2015 and raised from 2,500 to 5,000 lei the value at which an item becomes a fixed asset. The practical effect was immediate and silent: everything costing between the two thresholds slid, in the accounts, from fixed assets into inventory items. The social enterprise scheme said nothing about value, only about category, and its list of ineligible expenditure contained, under letter n), exactly the category the goods had landed in. From the beginning of tax year 2026 until 18 September 2026, that is, 260 days, a workbench worth 3,000 lei or a server worth 4,500 lei no longer had any basis for payment, although nobody had amended the scheme.
The scheme in question finances the setting up of social enterprises and work integration social enterprises in the areas hit by the closure of the coal industry. It covers the counties of Gorj, Hunedoara and Dolj, and the Jiu Valley microregion has its own separate call, with six towns and cities: Uricani, Lupeni, Vulcan, Aninoasa, Petroșani and Petrila. The de minimis aid budget is 18,951,350 euro, of which 16,108,648 euro come from the Just Transition Fund and 2,842,702 euro from the state budget. Each enterprise can receive between 100,000 and 300,000 euro, with cover of at most 95% of the eligible expenditure and co-financing of at least 5%, and the estimated number of beneficiaries is at most 80.
The rest of the conditions stay exactly where they were. Each enterprise has to create at least two jobs, each of at least 8 hours a day and of indefinite duration, at least 75% of the jobs created have to go to people whose domicile or residence is in the area of the call, and the social enterprise certificate is obtained within 4 months of signing the subsidy contract and in any event before the first payment. The jobs are kept filled for 24 months from the date of the certificate, plus at least 12 months during the sustainability period, so three years in all. Wage costs cannot exceed 20% of the aid, and the money can be paid in no more than three instalments, the first of at most 50%.
What it changes in practice
For anyone preparing a business plan in the three counties, the effect is direct and measured in lei. A workshop or a practice fitted out with desks, chairs, a professional printer and two computers can easily add up tens of thousands of lei in goods that each cost between 2,500 and 5,000 lei. Until 18 September 2026 each of them had to be either cut from the budget or paid out of own funds on top of the 5% co-financing. From 18 September 2026 they can be claimed again, with two things to check: a value above 2,500 lei and a fit with one of the subgroups of the Catalogue in Government Decision no. 2.139/2004.
For enterprises that already have a signed subsidy contract, the effect shows on the first reimbursement claim filed after 18 September 2026. The order contains no transitional provision, so it says nothing about costs incurred before that date and rejected on the basis of the old letter n). Anyone with such a rejection in their file receives no right of re-examination from this order: the new text applies from publication, with no retroactive effect.
For the scheme administrators and for the managing authority, the effect is a longer checklist. Before, the question was one: does the item fall into the category of fixed assets or not. Now there are three: whether the item is a fixed asset, whether it is an inventory item worth more than 2,500 lei with an operating life of more than one year, and whether it appears in the Catalogue. The new text also adds to Article 17 a safety net that was missing before, the express cross-reference to Article 19, so that an item on the list of ineligible ones cannot be claimed by this route.
For means of transport nothing changes, and this is the one place where the order closes an old contradiction without announcing it. The old wording of the expenditure category in Article 17 expressly included transport equipment, while Article 14 excepted it and Article 19(h) declared it ineligible under subgroup 2.3 of the Catalogue, apart from transporting and lifting machinery. The new wording no longer mentions transport equipment, so the three articles finally say the same thing.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
A comparison with the version published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 1093 bis of 26 November 2025 shows how small the intervention is and how much it matters. In Article 14(a)(ii) the old text stopped at the words „de natura mijloacelor fixe, cu excepția mijloacelor de transport” (of the nature of fixed assets, apart from means of transport). The new text keeps the same list and the same exception, but inserts the category of inventory items worth more than 2,500 lei with a normal operating life of more than one year. Nothing else is touched.
In Article 19(1)(n) the difference can be read in a moment. It used to say that the following are ineligible: „cheltuielile pentru procurarea de bunuri care, conform legii, intră în categoria obiectelor de inventar” (expenditure on the purchase of goods which, under the law, fall into the category of inventory items), full stop. Now the same sentence continues with an exception covering goods worth more than 2,500 lei with an operating life of more than one year. The ban stays for everything cheaper than 2,500 lei or used up within a year, that is, for small office items and consumables.
Article 17 gets the change that goes furthest. The old text of the category of expenditure on equipment, fittings and tangible assets covered „bunuri care intră în categoria mijloacelor fixe, utilaje, echipamente tehnologice și funcționale care nu necesită montaj și echipamente de transport” (goods falling into the category of fixed assets, machinery, technological and functional equipment that does not require installation, and transport equipment) and added a second sentence about machinery without installation. The new text changes the list, adds inventory items worth more than 2,500 lei, drops transport equipment, abandons the second sentence and refers expressly to Article 19. It is the only point where the order rewrites a provision instead of supplementing it.
The name of the programme has changed too, at least on the paper of the order. The title, Article 1 and the title of the annex speak, from 18 September 2026, of the Sustainable Development and Just Transition Programme 2021-2027. The difference from November 2025 shows in the legal basis invoked as well: the original scheme rested on Commission Implementing Decision C(2022) 9.125 final of 2 December 2022, approving the „Tranziție Justă” (Just Transition) programme for the six just transition counties, while the present order invokes Decision C(2022) 8.703 final of 24 November 2022, which approves the „Dezvoltare durabilă și tranziție justă” (Sustainable Development and Just Transition) programme. This is a change of the European act of reference, on top of the change of name.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- It repairs a loss of financing that nobody decided on. Goods worth 2,500 to 5,000 lei dropped out of the financing because of a tax change that moved the border between two accounting categories, without the scheme being touched.
- The new criterion can be checked without interpretation. A value above 2,500 lei, an operating life of more than one year and presence in the Catalogue in Government Decision no. 2.139/2004 can be proved with the invoice and a classification, leaving no room for argument.
- It adds to Article 17 the cross-reference to Article 19 that was missing. The categories of eligible expenditure can no longer be read in isolation from the list of ineligible ones, so a route to payment that a beneficiary in good faith could have used wrongly disappears.
- It removes an old contradiction about means of transport. The old Article 17 listed them among eligible expenditure while Articles 14 and 19 excluded them, and the new wording no longer mentions them.
- It touches nothing an applicant has already built a business plan on. The budget, the thresholds of 100,000 and 300,000 euro, the 95% cover, the two jobs and the 2029 deadlines stay identical.
- It comes with the Competition Council opinion obtained beforehand, not afterwards. Opinion no. RG/13.354 dates from 18 August 2026 and the order was signed on 14 September 2026.
What remains a problem
- The threshold of 2,500 lei is written out by hand in the scheme, while the fixed-asset threshold is updated annually for inflation, by Government decision. The window between them will widen on its own every year, without anyone having decided it.
- The renaming does not reach the annex. The clause that changes the name of the programme targets the phrase „Program Tranziție Justă” (Just Transition Programme), a form that does not appear even once in the annex, because there the name is used with the definite article, in eleven spots, and the abbreviation PTJ appears in nineteen.
- The annex is not republished. The order amends the title of the annex and three provisions in it, but the consolidated text is published nowhere, so anyone who wants to know what the scheme says today has to read two editions of the Official Gazette of Romania, ten months apart.
- The reproduced text of Article 1 keeps an asterisk that leads nowhere. In the November 2025 edition the asterisk pointed to the note that the annex is published in issue no. 1093 bis, and on pages 14-15 of 18 September 2026 the note is missing.
- The transitional provisions are missing. The text does not say what happens to the costs rejected during the 260 days in which letter n) operated without exception, even though the problem was created by a tax change applying from the start of the tax year.
- The correction comes at the third attempt, on different schemes, within nine days. The same sentence was rewritten on 9, on 15 and on 18 September 2026, a sign that the inventory of schemes hit by the new threshold was taken piece by piece.
Practical advice
- If you are preparing a business plan for this scheme, go back over the list of fittings and check every item worth more than 2,500 lei. What you cut from the budget in the first nine months of 2026 because it was an inventory item can go back in.
- For every item in the 2,500 to 5,000 lei band, keep three pieces of evidence: the invoice with the value, the classification in one of the subgroups of the Catalogue in Government Decision no. 2.139/2004, and the normal operating life of more than one year. These are exactly the three conditions the new text requires.
- Do not confuse the eligibility threshold with the tax threshold. The scheme calls for a value above 2,500 lei, while the Tax Code says an item becomes a fixed asset at 5,000 lei or above. An item worth exactly 2,500 lei stays outside the exception.
- If you already have a subsidy contract, ask the scheme administrator in writing how the new text applies to costs incurred before 18 September 2026. The text provides nothing on this point, so the answer will be an administrative practice rather than a published rule.
- Check in the applicant’s guide whether specific ceilings per category of expenditure still exist. Article 19(n) now allows the item, but Article 19(j) declares ineligible any expenditure above the ceilings set by the managing authority in the guide.
- Do not count on transport equipment. Neither the new Article 17 nor Article 14 covers it any longer, and Article 19(h) excludes subgroup 2.3 of the Catalogue, with a single exception, the class of transporting and lifting machinery and installations.
- Work out the three years of job obligation from the start. The 24 months from the date of the social enterprise certificate plus at least 12 months during the sustainability period mean that a post created in 2027 has to be kept filled until 2030, beyond the date on which payments under the scheme close.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly can be claimed now that could not be claimed yesterday?
Why had these goods dropped out of the financing, if nobody had amended the scheme?
When do the new provisions apply from?
Does the amount I can receive change?
Which counties does the scheme apply in?
Does the obligation on jobs change?
What is the de minimis aid ceiling and where does it come from?
Can I recover a cost rejected before 18 September 2026?
What is the programme the money comes from called now?
Where do I read the text of the scheme as it stands today?
Errors and inconsistencies in the published text
- Article I point 7. The order provides that, throughout the order, the phrase „Program Tranziție Justă” (Just Transition Programme) is replaced by the phrase „Program Dezvoltare durabilă și Tranziție justă” (Sustainable Development and Just Transition Programme). The phrase targeted, in that exact and uninflected form, does not appear even once in the annex published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 1093 bis of 26 November 2025. There the name is used with the definite article, „Programul” or „Programului Tranziție Justă 2021-2027”, in eleven spots, plus the abbreviation PTJ in nineteen. Applied literally, point 7 changes nothing, and applied according to its intention it still leaves the abbreviation untouched. The identification has consequences: Article 19(2) and (3) tie two important exclusions, equipment running on fossil fuels and heating systems running on fossil fuels or gas, to costs incurred under the „Programului Tranziție Justă” (Just Transition Programme), and Article 21(1) ties the source of financing to PTJ 2021-2027. After the amendment, the same programme has one name in the title and in Article 1 and another name in the definition in Article 3(20) of its own annex.
- Article I point 5. The order amends, in the annex, „la articolul 17, alineatul (2)” (in Article 17, paragraph (2)), but Article 17 of the scheme has no paragraphs. It is structured as a list from 1) to 8), and the category of expenditure targeted is point 2). The amendment renumbers its own object as paragraph (2), so after 18 September 2026 Article 17 would contain a paragraph (2) between points 1) and 3). The consequence is not a formal one: if an auditor reads strictly and takes the view that the amendment has no object, point 2) survives in its old form, which covers only goods falling into the category of fixed assets and expressly includes transport equipment. The same cost of 3,000 lei can therefore be accepted or rejected, depending on which of the two readings applies.
Editorial analysis
On the substance, the order does the right thing and does it quickly. A tax change adopted in February 2026 took a whole category of fittings out of the financing without anyone voting on it, and the ministry rewrote the three places in the scheme where the category mattered. The Competition Council opinion dates from 18 August 2026, the approval report from 7 September, the signature from 14 September and the publication from 18 September, so thirty-one days from opinion to Official Gazette of Romania. For an act that reopens a line of expenditure in a live scheme, that is a good pace.
The scheme’s figures add up, and that is worth saying because it happens rarely. The four indicative allocations per call, 6,300,000 euro for Gorj, 5,493,377 for Hunedoara, 2,957,973 for the Jiu Valley and 4,200,000 for Dolj, come to exactly 18,951,350 euro, the figure declared in Article 21(2). The total allocation of the calls, 27,073,357 euro, minus the part that is not covered by the scheme, 8,122,007 euro, gives the same result. The split by source respects the ratio of 85 to 15 down to the euro, and the annual table, with 1,500,000 in 2026, 15,000,000 in 2027, 2,100,000 in 2028 and 351,350 in 2029, adds up across all three rows. The only thing the table says without meaning to is that 79.15% of the money is granted in a single year, 2027, while 1.85% is left for 2029.
What does not show on a reading of the scheme comes out of dividing two figures that sit twenty pages apart. The estimated number of beneficiaries is at most 80 enterprises and the de minimis aid budget is 18,951,350 euro, which gives average support of 236,892 euro, or 79% of the maximum ceiling. If all 80 were to ask for the maximum of 300,000 euro, 24,000,000 euro would be needed, 5,048,650 euro more than exists. At the maximum of 300,000 euro the budget stretches to 63 enterprises, and at the minimum of 100,000 euro it would stretch to 189. With the minimum obligation of two jobs per enterprise, the 80 projects produce at least 160 posts, so up to 118,446 euro of public money per job, and at the maximum ceiling with the minimum hiring the figure reaches 150,000 euro per post.
The order’s most lasting problem, though, is the threshold it writes out by hand. The scheme now calls for a value above 2,500 lei, a fixed figure, while Government Emergency Ordinance no. 8/2026 provides that the limit of 5,000 lei at which an item becomes a fixed asset is updated annually, according to the inflation index, by Government decision. The upper threshold moves, the lower one does not. The new eligibility window, today a little under 2,500 lei wide, will widen with every indexation, and in a few years the scheme will be paying for increasingly valuable goods as inventory items, without anyone having taken that decision. It is the very mechanism that produced the problem the order repairs, only running the other way.
What should be changed
- The threshold in the scheme should be a cross-reference, not a figure. A wording tied to the limit laid down in Article 28(2)(b) of the Tax Code would follow the indexation automatically, and the scheme would no longer need a new order at every indexation decision.
- The renaming clause should cover the inflected forms and the abbreviation. Point 7 ought to say that the forms with the definite article, „Programul” and „Programului Tranziție Justă”, and the abbreviation PTJ, including in AM PTJ and OI PTJ, are replaced as well, otherwise the annex is left with two names for the same programme.
- The amendment to Article 17 should target point 2), not a paragraph (2). Correcting the designation would close the discussion about what the amendment applies to and would keep Article 17 numbered uniformly, from 1) to 8).
- The annex should be republished in consolidated form. Anyone submitting a project today reads a scheme from November 2025 and an order from September 2026, and the difference between them decides whether an invoice gets paid. Republication would cost one edition of the Official Gazette of Romania and would spare every applicant the job of reconstructing the text.
- The wrong internal cross-references in the annex should be put right on the same occasion. Article 10(1) refers, for the categories of eligible expenditure, to Article 21, which deals with the source of financing, and Article 22(1) refers, for the ceiling, to Article 15(2)(a), which does not exist, because the ceiling sits in Article 11(2)(a). The order added a correct cross-reference to Article 19, so whoever drafted it was reading the cross-references.
- Acts that repair a tax consequence should say what happens to the period that has elapsed. Between the start of tax year 2026 and 18 September 2026, 260 days passed in which letter n) operated without exception. A single transitional sentence would say whether costs from that interval can be resubmitted or not.
- The inventory of schemes hit by the new threshold should be taken once, not piece by piece. Three orders in nine days, on 9, on 15 and on 18 September 2026, repair the same sentence in three different schemes. A single check after February 2026 would have shown every scheme that makes eligibility depend on the accounting category of an item.
Original text of the legal act
The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.
The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania
Official Gazette of Romania no. 792 of 18 September 2026, pages 14-15 16 pages PDF, 151 KB the act starts on page 14
Open the official PDFDownload the PDF
The viewer is not shown on small screens. Use the buttons above to open or download the file.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.