In brief

  • The Ministry of Economy published on the same day six orders that replace the technical prescriptions under which ISCIR, the State Inspectorate for the Control of Boilers, Pressure Vessels and Lifting Equipment, authorises and inspects boilers, pressure vessels, cranes, lifts, gas cylinders and, for the first time, hydrogen refuelling stations.
  • The most important practical rule: the technical inspection report drawn up by CNCIR, the national company that carries out these inspections, stands in for a provisional authorisation for no more than 90 days, and the registration form must be sent to ISCIR within 30 days of the inspection.
  • The rules change for people too, not only for machinery: RSVTI operators, operating personnel, the companies authorised to work on this equipment and the trainers in vocational programmes all come under new technical prescriptions. Two old prescriptions, from 2003 and 2009, are repealed.
Act: MEDAT Orders no. 1.167, 1.168, 1.169, 1.170, 1.171 and 1.174/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 666, 667, 667 bis and 668 of 12 August 2026
In force from: 12 August 2026

If your company owns a boiler, a crane, a forklift, a lift or simply gas cylinders under pressure, the rules under which they are inspected changed on 12 August 2026, all at once. The Ministry of Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism published in the Official Gazette of Romania of 12 August 2026 a package of six orders approving new technical prescriptions in the field regulated by ISCIR. It is the summer’s broadest wave of technical regulation, coming after the update of the quality standards for petrol and diesel.

The six orders bear the numbers 1.167, 1.168, 1.169, 1.170, 1.171 and 1.174, all signed on 24 July 2026 by minister Ambrozie-Irineu Darău. Together they approve seven technical prescriptions: PT CR 2-2025, PT CR 3-2025, PT C 5-2025, PT CR 4-2025, PT CR 8-2025, PT CR 5-2025 and PT C 15-2025.

The way the texts are spread across editions of the Official Gazette of Romania says something about the sheer volume. Order no. 1.167 and its prescription fill the whole of issue no. 666. Orders no. 1.168, 1.169, 1.170 and 1.174 take up four pages of issue no. 667, but their technical prescriptions run to 383 pages in issue no. 667 bis. Order no. 1.171 and its prescription are in issue no. 668.

All six orders state in their own text that they were adopted in compliance with the notification procedure laid down by Directive (EU) 2015/1.535, meaning they were communicated in advance, as technical regulations, to the European Commission and to the other member states.

What it changes in practice

Provisional authorisation lasts no more than 90 days. When the technical inspections come out clean, CNCIR draws up the technical inspection report and the equipment may operate until the authorisation proper is issued, but for no longer than 90 days from the date of the inspections. The report must carry that very statement, written out word for word in the prescription.

The registration form carries a 30-day deadline. The form is drawn up by CNCIR, completed with the data supplied by the owner or the user of the equipment, and sent to ISCIR within 30 days of the technical inspections. The data it contains must match the records on construction, installation, commissioning, maintenance and technical supervision.

The split between operating authorisation and operating admission stays in place. The authorisation is granted by ISCIR, and the technical inspections behind it are carried out by CNCIR. Operating admission, for the equipment listed in annex no. 8, is checked by authorised natural or legal persons, and the report is drawn up by the person responsible for technical inspection or by the RSVTI operator. The date of the report is the date of admission itself.

Registration numbers are allocated according to a fixed scheme, with a county code. On operating admission, two numerical county codes are written after the registration number: one for the owner and one for the user of the equipment. A machine moved from one county to another can no longer be left with an ambiguous identity.

Companies that owe money to ISCIR no longer get served. The prescription states explicitly that ISCIR carries out the activities it provides for only in favour of natural and legal persons against whom debt recovery proceedings have not been opened. This is a collection lever, not merely a technical rule.

The equipment logbook remains the owner’s responsibility. The owner or the user must keep the equipment logbook in good condition and hand it over together with the equipment. When a machine is sold, the document follows the goods.

A technical prescription for hydrogen appears for the first time. PT C 15-2025 „Hydrogen refuelling installations”, approved by Order no. 1.174, is also issued in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2023/1.804 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure. It is the technical framework for the hydrogen refuelling stations that are to be built in Romania.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Two old technical prescriptions disappear. Order no. 1.169 repeals Order no. 306/2003 of the Minister of Economy and Trade, which had approved PT C 5-2003 on the use of cylinders for compressed, liquefied or dissolved gases under pressure. The rules for gas cylinders therefore dated from 2003.

Order no. 1.170 repeals Order no. 2.154/2009 of the Minister of Economy, which had approved PT CR 4-2009 on the authorisation of legal persons to carry out works on equipment and PT CR 8-2009 on the authorisation of operating personnel. The framework for authorising companies and machine operators dated from 2009.

The legal vocabulary changes as well. PT CR 4-2025 speaks of authorising legal persons to perform „activities” on the equipment, replacing the 2009 wording, which referred to „works”. That is a widening of scope, not a simple rewrite.

For RSVTI operators, the persons responsible for the technical supervision of the installations, PT CR 3-2025 replaces the previous authorisation regime. In the same way, PT CR 5-2025 reworks the conditions under which someone may be certified as a trainer in the vocational training programmes for this field.

Finally, publishing seven technical prescriptions at once points to a change of method. Until now, ISCIR prescriptions were updated one by one, years apart. This package aligns them with one another, with the same definitions and the same chapter structure.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The rules for gas cylinders are no longer those of 2003, and those for authorising companies and personnel are no longer those of 2009.
  • The 90-day limit on provisional authorisation brings predictability: the equipment can go to work straight after a successful inspection, without waiting for the final paperwork.
  • Allocating registration numbers with a county code for both owner and user makes the traceability of machinery far clearer.
  • The arrival of a technical prescription for hydrogen refuelling installations unblocks investment in this infrastructure.
  • Publishing the whole package at once removes the periods in which a new prescription pointed back to an old one built on different definitions.
  • Prior notification to the European Commission reduces the risk that these rules will later be challenged as technical barriers to trade.

What remains a problem

  • All six orders enter into force on publication, with no transition period for companies whose internal procedures are written around the old prescriptions.
  • The actual text of most of the prescriptions is published in a 383-page bis edition, which has to be bought from the public relations centre of the Official Gazette of Romania.
  • A small operator has to follow seven new technical documents at the same time simply to work out which ones apply.
  • Making ISCIR services conditional on the absence of debt recovery proceedings can hold up safety inspections over a financial dispute.
  • The prescriptions refer to one another in a cascade, and to „the technical prescription applicable to the equipment”, which makes the whole hard to read without specialist help.
  • 383 pages published in a single day leave small companies little real time to adapt.

Practical advice

  1. Take stock of the equipment you own and establish for each item whether it falls under operating authorisation, operating admission or merely technical inspection in service. Everything else follows from there.
  2. Check whether you have pressurised gas cylinders in circulation. Their regime has changed completely through PT C 5-2025, which replaces the 2003 prescription.
  3. If your company is authorised to carry out activities on ISCIR equipment, read PT CR 4-2025. Your current authorisation was obtained under the 2009 regime, which has just been repealed.
  4. Keep an eye on the 30-day deadline for the registration form. The data in the form comes from you, as owner or user, so your delay is what stalls the file.
  5. Do not go beyond the 90 days of operation covered by the technical inspection report. After that deadline the equipment has no cover until the authorisation proper is issued.
  6. Check whether you have unpaid debts to ISCIR before booking an inspection. Debt recovery proceedings cut off access to the institution’s services.
  7. Keep the logbook of every item of equipment and hand it over on sale. This is an express obligation of the owner, set out in the final provisions of the prescription.
  8. If you are preparing an investment in hydrogen refuelling stations, get hold of PT C 15-2025. It is the first national technical framework for this type of installation.

Frequently asked questions

Which equipment falls within the ISCIR field?
Pressure equipment and installations, lifting equipment and installations, and fuel-burning appliances, under Law no. 64/2008 on their safe operation. In practice this means boilers, pressure vessels, pipework, cranes, forklifts, lifts, cable cars, gas cylinders and heating plants.
What is the difference between operating authorisation and operating admission?
Operating authorisation is granted by ISCIR on the basis of the technical inspections carried out by CNCIR, and covers the equipment listed in annexes no. 1, 2 and 3 to the prescription. Operating admission covers the equipment in annex no. 8 and rests on inspections performed by authorised natural or legal persons, with a report drawn up by the person responsible for technical inspection or by the RSVTI operator.
Can I use the equipment straight after the technical inspection?
Yes, but only for a limited time. If the inspection results are satisfactory, the CNCIR technical inspection report acts as a provisional operating authorisation until the authorisation proper is issued, without exceeding 90 days from the date the inspections were carried out.
What is an RSVTI operator?
The person responsible for the technical supervision of the installations and equipment in the field regulated by ISCIR. The authorisation of these operators is governed by technical prescription PT CR 3-2025, approved by Order no. 1.168/2026.
Which old prescriptions have been repealed?
Two of them. Order no. 306/2003 of the Minister of Economy and Trade, which had approved PT C 5-2003 on cylinders for compressed, liquefied or dissolved gases under pressure, and Order no. 2.154/2009 of the Minister of Economy, which had approved PT CR 4-2009 on the authorisation of legal persons and PT CR 8-2009 on the authorisation of operating personnel.
Where can I find the full text of the technical prescriptions?
PT CR 2-2025 is published in full in Official Gazette of Romania no. 666 of 12 August 2026, and PT CR 5-2025 in issue no. 668 of the same day. Prescriptions PT CR 3-2025, PT C 5-2025, PT CR 4-2025, PT CR 8-2025 and PT C 15-2025 are published as annexes in Official Gazette of Romania no. 667 bis of 12 August 2026, which can be purchased from the public relations centre of the Official Gazette of Romania.
Why do they all appear at once?
The six orders were signed on the same day, 24 July 2026, and went through the notification procedure together, as laid down by Directive (EU) 2015/1.535, under which national technical regulations are communicated in advance to the European Commission and to the other member states. Publishing them simultaneously keeps the cross-references between them coherent.

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. 666, no. 667, no. 667 bis and no. 668 of 12 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 1.7 MB the act starts on page 2

Open the official PDFDownload the PDF

The other editions cited: nr. 667/2026, nr. 667 bis/2026, nr. 668/2026

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.