In brief

  • There are 100 million euro for fast recharging stations on motorways, on express roads and on the national roads of the trans-European transport network, and the State can cover 100% of the eligible expenditure. At the rate of 5.2481 lei used by the guide itself, the money comes to 524.8 million lei. A single company cannot take more than 30 million euro, that is 157.4 million lei, however many sessions it wins.
  • The winners are picked by bidding, not by the quality of the file. Out of 100 points, 85 go to whoever asks for the fewest euro for each kilowatt installed and 15 to whoever installs the most power. There is no other criterion, and at the scoring stage no clarifications are asked for: if a compulsory document is missing, the project is rejected. The eligibility of the company is checked only after the ranking, at contracting.
  • The entry threshold is technical, not financial. A location for lorries on the European core network needs a minimum of 3,600 kW installed and at least two points of 350 kW each; one for passenger cars, a minimum of 600 kW and two points of 150 kW each. The first call has to be launched within 30 days of the publication of the guide, that is by 25 October 2026, and everything has to be finished by 30 June 2030. Those concerned are companies of any size, including from other member states, but not those set up recently.
Act: Order of the minister of transport and infrastructure no. 886/2026 approving the Applicant’s Guide on the development of recharging infrastructure for electric vehicles on the national network of motorways, express roads and national roads „e-Mobility RO”, sub-measure 1
Published: Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 819 of 25 September 2026, page 12, with the annex in no. 819 Bis
In force from: from publication, 25 September 2026, because Article 12(3) of Law no. 24/2000 on legislative drafting rules provides that normative acts, with the exception of laws and ordinances, take effect on the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) unless they themselves contain a later date

The order has three articles and one page. Its annex, the applicant’s guide, takes up more than two hundred pages in a separate edition of the Official Gazette of Romania and says, at last, how the money from the Modernisation Fund is shared out for the recharging stations on the big roads. The State aid scheme had existed since August 2025, and its technical conditions were rewritten a few days earlier, through a package of five orders that changed the power thresholds. What was missing was the guide, that is the rules of the competition.

The money comes from the European Union, but by a different route from the cohesion programmes. The Modernisation Fund is a European mechanism, set up by Article 10d of Directive 2003/87/EC, the one that created the emission allowance trading scheme, and it works under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1001. Romania receives non-repayable amounts from it, and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure administers them, as delegated body for the transport sub-sector, under Government Emergency Ordinance no. 60/2022.

The scheme as a whole is worth 299 million euro for the period 2023-2028. Sub-measure 1, the one in this guide, gets 100 million, that is 33.4% of the total. The rest goes to the other sub-measures, which are not the subject of this act. At the InforEuro rate of June 2026, written in the guide as 5.2481 lei to the euro, sub-measure 1 has 524.8 million lei at its disposal, and the ceiling for a single company, 30 million euro, means 157.4 million lei. In other words, three companies asking for the maximum would use up 90% of the sub-measure’s budget.

The basic rule of the competition is simple and harsh: the winner is the one who asks for less for the same installed power. The lowest aid requested, measured in euro per kilowatt installed, gets 85 points, the highest gets zero, and the rest fall linearly in between. The second criterion, worth 15 points, rewards total installed power: the largest project takes 15 points, the smallest takes zero. The scores are added up, the applications are ranked in descending order and they are financed until the money for the call runs out. What is left goes on the reserve list.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is that the clock starts. The guide says that the call is launched within 30 days of its publication in the Official Gazette of Romania, that is by 25 October 2026, through an announcement on the ministry’s website. The submission period is set by that announcement. The guide has a section called „Submission period for project proposals”, but no length is written in it, only that the ministry may extend the deadline.

Then comes the move of the decision from the hands of the evaluators into the hands of the bidders. There is no quality grid, no score for the maturity of the project, for the site or for the environmental impact. There are two numbers: euro per kilowatt and kilowatts. The opportunity analysis, the environmental assessment and the self-assessment on the do no significant harm principle are compulsory at submission, otherwise the file is rejected, but they bring no points. They are conditions of entry, and the ranking is decided elsewhere.

The third effect concerns those who do not clear the technical threshold. For lorries, a location on the European core road network needs at least two recharging points of 350 kW each and a total installed and drawn power of at least 3,600 kW; on the comprehensive network, 1,500 kW. On the national roads due to be replaced by motorways or express roads, the thresholds come down to 2,800 kW and 1,400 kW. For passenger cars, the minimum is 600 kW and two points of 150 kW each. Every point has to have at least one CCS Combo 2 connector, and the stations have to be open to anyone, 24 hours out of 24, seven days a week, at market prices.

The fourth effect is the reversed order of the checks. The text says expressly that the first stage is the technical and economic one, in which the documents are counted and the score is given, while the administrative check and the eligibility check are made only afterwards, at the contracting stage. A company in insolvency, with debts to the tax authority or in financial difficulty, can therefore reach the top of the ranking and can hold money from the allocation until the moment when it is asked for its certificates.

The fifth effect has to do with what stays on the winner’s shoulders. The aid covers up to 100% of the eligible expenditure, but the list of non-eligible expenditure is long: value added tax, design, permits and authorisations, the opportunity analysis, project management, the financial audit, information and publicity, the operation of the investment. Information and publicity are compulsory and non-eligible at the same time. All of these are paid from own or attracted funds, in a form that is not itself public aid, and the assets have to be kept for five years after completion, with an annual energy audit carried out by staff authorised by the National Energy Regulatory Authority.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Until this order there was the State aid scheme, approved by Order of the minister of transport and infrastructure no. 1.319 of 12 August 2025, but there was no procedure for access. A scheme says who can receive aid and within what limits; the guide says how the application is made, how the scoring works and how it can be challenged. Without it, the money could not be spent.

The first novelty is the selection mechanism. Article 36a of Regulation (EU) No 651/2014, the basis of the scheme, allows an aid intensity of 100% of the eligible costs only if the allocation is made through a competitive bidding process built on precise rules. The guide takes those rules over as they are: 85% of the criteria expressed in the aid requested per recharging point, measured in euro per kilowatt installed, and 15% in installed power. The proportion is not a choice of the ministry, it is the price of being able to finance the whole cost.

The second novelty is the closing of the list of locations. The sites included in the project at the moment of submission can no longer be changed or replaced at any stage, not even during implementation. Whoever loses an access agreement or a technical connection approval along the way is left with an unfinished project and with the obligation to give the sums back.

The third novelty is the exclusion of newly set up companies. The guide defines them as those incorporated in the year of submission or in the year before, without approved financial statements, or those that have carried on no economic activity, but for no more than three consecutive tax years, and it keeps them out of the calls. On a market where many recharging operators are companies created specially for the project, the condition cuts out a whole segment of possible bidders.

The fourth novelty is the tie-break criterion at equal scores. The guide says that, in the event of a tie, priority goes to the project with the higher amount requested. The rule runs exactly the opposite way from the main criterion, which gives 85 points to the one who asks for the least.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The selection criteria are two verifiable numbers. Anyone who wants to challenge a ranking can redo the calculation with the formula in the guide, because it is published in full.
  • The aid intensity can reach 100% of the eligible expenditure, including the works to connect to the electricity grid, which are usually the most expensive and the least predictable part of a high-power station.
  • The technical thresholds are written in kilowatts and in numbers of recharging points, and the CCS Combo 2 connector is required explicitly, which removes any argument about interoperability at handover.
  • Permanent and non-discriminatory public access, at market prices for third parties, is a condition of financing. A station paid for with public money cannot be reserved for the operator’s own fleet.
  • Projects can be submitted in partnership, with no limit on the number of partners, which allows a recharging operator to team up with the owner of the service area or with an energy supplier.
  • Where the connection solution also serves other consumers, the eligible costs are set in proportion to the share of the power needed by the stations. The rule closes the easiest way of inflating the bill with works that are of use to someone else.

What remains a problem

  • The scoring formula divides by the difference between the lowest and the highest bid, so it produces no result when the bids are equal or when there is a single bidder. See the section on errors below.
  • Regulation (EU) No 651/2014, the basis of the whole scheme, expires on 31 December 2026, and from the publication of the guide until then 98 days remain. The guide says nothing about what happens to the files contracted after that date, even though the scheme it implements has recently been given precisely such a clause.
  • The eligibility of the applicant is checked after the ranking. A project rejected at contracting frees money, but the guide does not say whether and how the reserve list moves up in its place.
  • The annual ceiling of 149.5 million euro per procedure is 49.5% higher than the entire budget of the sub-measure, 100 million. The limit can never become operative here, but it appears in the guide as though it mattered.
  • The budget of the sub-measure is expressed in euro, with no conversion rate, while the ceiling per company has one fixed, 5.2481 lei. The line at which the ranking is cut therefore depends on a figure the guide does not give.
  • The 100% applies to a narrow base. Design, permits, project management, the financial audit, information, publicity and value added tax stay with the beneficiary, and the guide gives no order of magnitude for them.

Practical advice

  1. The date of the call is on the ministry’s website. The announcement for each session is published there and it contains the submission period, which the guide does not fix. The latest date for launching it is 25 October 2026.
  2. Work out the euro per kilowatt installed from the start, because that is the number that decides 85 of the 100 points. A project that is expensive in relation to its power loses the competition however well the rest of the file is written.
  3. Check the compulsory documents before you submit, one by one. At the scoring stage no clarifications are asked for, and a single missing document leads to rejection, with no right to complete the file.
  4. Fix the locations for good. The sites can no longer be changed at any stage, so the agreement of the road administrator and a right of use valid for at least five years from the final payment are obtained before submission.
  5. Prepare the solvency indicator. The ratio of total debt to own capital has to be positive and below 7.5 in the last financial year; otherwise you will need a letter of comfort at contracting.
  6. Budget the non-eligible part separately. Design, permits, management, the audit, information, publicity and value added tax are paid from own or attracted resources, and those resources are not allowed to be public aid themselves.
  7. Do not start the works before you submit. The first firm order of equipment, or any commitment that makes the investment irreversible, cancels the incentive effect and makes the whole project non-eligible.

Frequently asked questions

Who can ask for the money?
Micro-enterprises, small, medium-sized and large companies, legally incorporated in Romania or in another member state of the European Union and registered with the National Trade Register Office in Romania by the date of the first payment. Newly set up companies are excluded. Applications can be made alone or in partnership, with one leader and any number of partners, each of them having to meet all the conditions.
How much money can a company take?
At most 30 million euro per undertaking, across all the sessions together, that is 157.4 million lei at the InforEuro rate of June 2026, of 5.2481 lei. In each session a single project can be submitted for the sub-measure, but the project may cover several locations.
How is the winner chosen?
By score, out of a maximum of 100 points. Whoever asks for the fewest euro per kilowatt installed gets 85 points, whoever asks for the most gets zero, and in between the score is calculated linearly. The second criterion gives 15 points to the project with the highest installed power and zero to the one with the lowest. In the event of a tie, the project with the higher amount requested wins.
What minimum power does a station have to have?
For heavy vehicles, at least two points of 350 kW each and a minimum of 3,600 kW installed on the European core road network or 1,500 kW on the comprehensive one. On the national roads due to be replaced by motorways or express roads, the thresholds are 2,800 kW and 1,400 kW. For light vehicles, at least two points of 150 kW each and a minimum of 600 kW. A recharging point means, in the guide, an output power of at least 22 kW.
By when does the project have to be finished?
Within at most 30 months of the submission of the financing application and in any case no later than 30 June 2030. Whoever does not keep to that gives back the sums received from the Modernisation Fund. Completion is followed by five years of durability, in which the assets cannot be transferred, the activity cannot cease, and the applicant submits an energy audit every year.
Can this money be combined with other aid?
No, not for the same eligible expenditure. The aid is not cumulated with any other State aid, including de minimis aid, and after the contract is signed the beneficiary can no longer receive public financing for the same expenditure, on pain of termination and of recovery of the sums with interest.
What do I do if I am not happy with the ranking?
The challenge is lodged within 30 days of the communication of the result, through the MySMIS 2021 platform, and it has to show the criterion challenged, the reasons of fact and of law and the means of proof. It is settled within 30 days, with the possibility of extension, and the decision of the commission is final at the level of the ministry.
Is the money European or from the State budget?
European. The Modernisation Fund was set up by Article 10d of Directive 2003/87/EC and works under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1001. Romania accesses it through the framework laid down by Government Emergency Ordinance no. 60/2022, and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure is the delegated body for the transport sub-sector.

Errors and inconsistencies in the published text

  • The applicant’s guide, Chapter 4, point 4.1.1, criteria 1 and 2. Both scoring formulas divide by the difference between the lowest and the highest value submitted in the session. When all the bidders declare the same value, and the extreme case is that of a single bidder, the denominator becomes zero and the score cannot be calculated. What is more, the only participant would be at the same time the lowest and the highest, so it would have to receive 85 points and zero at once. The guide lays down no fallback rule for this situation, even though it anticipates a procedure „in which all applicants receive aid” and asks the ministry to correct competition only in the following sessions, by reducing the budget. Since the ranking is the only allocation mechanism, without a score nothing can be awarded.

Editorial analysis

The strongest pressure on this guide cannot be seen in it. The whole scheme rests on Article 36a of Regulation (EU) No 651/2014, and the regulation expires on 31 December 2026. From the publication of the guide, 25 September 2026, to that date there are 98 days. If the ministry uses the whole launch period, 30 days, 68 are left. Into that interval would have to fit the announcement of the call, the submission period, the technical and economic evaluation, 30 days of challenges, another 30 for settling them, 15 working days for the contracting documents and the signing of the contracts. The date of granting the aid is, by the guide’s own definition, the date on which the financing contract is signed. The calendar does not fit. The ministry recently published five orders that add exactly one clause about the expiry of the regulation to the schemes it administers, this one included; the guide, published after them, does not repeat it and says nothing about what happens to the files left unsigned on 1 January 2027.

The second observation comes from the way the two criteria combine. Both are relative, that is the score measures only the position against the others in the same session. The consequence is clearest with two participants: the cheaper one takes 85 points, the other zero, whether the difference between them is one euro per kilowatt or a hundred. A competition with three close bids produces the same differences in score as one with three distant bids. And the second criterion pushes in the opposite direction from the first: more power brings points, but it costs money, so it raises the price per kilowatt. A rational bidder finds out which combination was the winning one only after the session closes, because both depend on what the others have submitted.

The third observation concerns the dimensions. The sub-measure has 100 million euro, and the ceiling for one company is 30 million. Three bidders at the ceiling use up 90% of the budget, and the fourth is left with the remains. At the same time, the guide repeats the annual ceiling of the scheme, 149.5 million euro per bidding procedure, which is 49.5% higher than the entire budget of the sub-measure and can never become operative here. Nor do the technical thresholds help competition: a single location for lorries on the core network calls for 3,600 kW installed and drawn, that is an industrial connection and a technical connection approval that not everyone obtains. With a small number of bidders able to clear the threshold, the price criterion, built in order to simulate a market, risks lining up only three or four already familiar players.

The fourth observation concerns the order of the stages. The score is given before the eligibility check, and at the scoring stage no clarifications are asked for. That combination turns the evaluation into a counting of documents and postpones all the hard questions to the contracting stage: whether the company has debts, whether it is in difficulty, whether the land is free of charges. The money freed by a project that falls then has no recipient, because the guide does not say whether the reserve list moves up. And the tie-break, which gives priority to the project with the higher amount requested, contradicts everything the 85-point criterion does, because it rewards precisely the bidder who asks the State for more.

What should be changed

  • The formulas should have a rule for the case where the bids are equal. A sentence of the type „if the lowest value is equal to the highest, all the projects receive the maximum score of the criterion” would save a session with a single bidder, which otherwise cannot be evaluated at all.
  • The guide should say what happens to the files contracted after 31 December 2026. The State aid basis expires then, and the clause already exists in the scheme the guide applies. Without it, a winner risks finding out after the evaluation that the contract can no longer be signed.
  • The section on the submission period should contain a period. A written minimum, of 60 days from the launch of the call for instance, would give everyone the same time to prepare and would make the European condition of sufficient prior publicity verifiable.
  • The eligibility check should be made before the scoring, or at least together with it. Otherwise the published ranking may contain companies that have no right to receive aid, and the budget stays blocked on them until contracting.
  • The tie-break should reward the lowest amount. As it is written now, the rule cancels, in the limiting case, the logic for which 85 of the 100 points are given.
  • The guide should say at what rate the budget of the sub-measure is converted. The ceiling per company has one fixed, 5.2481 lei; the allocation at which the ranking is cut does not, even though who gets financing and who stays on the reserve list depends on it.

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. 819 of 25 September 2026, page 12, with the annex in no. 819 Bis 16 pages PDF, 143 KB the act starts on page 12

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The other editions cited: nr. 819 bis/2026

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.