In brief
- Two years and two months on, Parliament approves the May 2024 ordinance by which the Government gave itself leave to draw 10% of the ministries’ money into the reserve fund, within a single working day of the request.
- The same ordinance allowed the sums earmarked for European projects and for the PNRR, Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, to be surrendered to the reserve fund, and allowed the deficit and staff cost ceilings to be exceeded by the sums so surrendered.
- The law changes nothing. The text remains the one written in 2024, but it leaves behind the provisional standing of an emergency ordinance.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 574 of 13 July 2026
In force from: 16 July 2026
In May 2024 the Ministry of Finance was given the right to ask any ministry to pay into the Government’s reserve fund the appropriations withheld at a rate of 10%, and the deadline for answering was set at one working day. Whoever failed to answer in time found the budget amended by operation of law. Law no. 129/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 574 of 13 July 2026, approves that ordinance without a single amendment. It is one of seven approval laws issued the same day, alongside the one confirming the ISCIR regime for hydrogen filling stations.
Government Emergency Ordinance no. 46/2024 was published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 444 of 14 May 2024. It has eleven articles and covers widely differing subjects: the mechanics of the reserve fund, European funds, public debt, Imprimeria Națională and the representation of the State in international arbitration.
The approval law has a single article. The ordinance is approved as published, together with the amendments made to it in the meantime.
What it changes in practice
The reserve fund may also finance current expenditure. By way of derogation from Public Finance Law no. 500/2002, in 2024 sums could be allocated from the budget reserve fund at the Government’s disposal, by government decision, towards the current and capital expenditure of principal authorising officers, not only for unforeseen situations.
The one-working-day deadline for paying over the 10%. Principal authorising officers of the State budget were required to release to the reserve fund, within one working day of the Ministry of Finance’s request, the commitment appropriations and budget appropriations withheld at a rate of 10%.
Silence is penalised by amendment of the budget of the ministry’s own motion. If the principal authorising officer does not answer within that deadline, the Ministry of Finance is authorised to make, by operation of law, the necessary changes to the structure of the State budget and to the volume and structure of the officer’s budget.
Money for European projects may leave for the reserve fund. Sums under the budget titles for projects with non-repayable European financing, for the 2014-2020 financial framework and for the two components of the PNRR, the grant one and the loan one, could be surrendered to the reserve fund.
The fiscal and budgetary ceilings may be exceeded by the sums surrendered. By way of derogation from Fiscal Responsibility Law no. 69/2010 and from the 2024 law on ceilings, the sums surrendered could be used to exceed the ceiling on the balance of the general consolidated budget, the ceilings on total expenditure and on staff costs, and the ceiling on the primary balance.
Transfers between the European fund titles are permitted. Authorising officers were allowed to transfer unused appropriations between titles 56, 58, 60 and 61, provided that the total of the sums under the budget articles „Non-repayable external financing” and „Non-repayable European funds” did not fall.
Imprimeria Națională has its objects rewritten. The ordinance rewrote Articles 1, 6 and 7 of the act setting it up, confirming that it produces on an exclusive basis electronic passports, residence permits, travel documents for foreign nationals, the uniform visa sticker and other documents whose specifications are classified.
Other acts change too. The deadline by which the Ministry of Energy is to restore the privatisation revenue used for Complexul Energetic Oltenia was moved to 31 December 2025, and the list of institutions exempted from the economic and financial discipline measures in Law no. 296/2023 was amended.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
Set against the 2024 position, the logic of the ordinance becomes visible. The general rule in Law no. 500/2002 is that the budget reserve fund serves to finance urgent or unforeseen expenditure arising in the course of the budget year. The ordinance suspended that limitation for 2024 and turned the fund into an instrument of routine reallocation.
The second change was one of speed. A deadline of one working day for paying over 10% of the withheld appropriations, with the budget amended of the ministry’s own motion in the event of silence, has no counterpart in ordinary budget procedure, where amending budgets go through legislation of their own.
The third concerns European funds. Surrendering to the reserve fund the sums under the titles for European projects and for the PNRR, combined with the power to exceed the ceilings by exactly those sums, created a mechanism through which money intended for projects could cover other needs of the budget.
On the date it entered into force, the ordinance repealed Article 35 paragraphs (2) and (3) and Article 36 of Emergency Ordinance no. 21/2024 on the organisation of the 2024 European Parliament and local elections, and the balance of the reserve fund built up under those provisions passed under the new regime.
Today’s law changes none of these mechanisms. What changes is their standing: until 16 July 2026 they applied under an ordinance that Parliament could still reject.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- It closes off the legal uncertainty hanging over the budget operations carried out in 2024 under the ordinance, including the government decisions allocating money from the reserve fund.
- It confirms the changes made to the act setting up Imprimeria Națională, which concern identity and travel documents issued every day.
- It keeps the 2025 deadline for restoring the privatisation revenue used for Complexul Energetic Oltenia, heading off an argument with retroactive effect.
- Approval without amendment has no retroactive effect on the 2024 budget execution, which is already closed.
What remains a problem
- Two years and two months between ordinance and law means the mechanisms ran for a whole budget year without Parliament confirming them.
- The one-working-day deadline, with the budget amended of the ministry’s own motion in the event of silence, leaves the principal authorising officer virtually no time to react.
- The power to exceed the deficit and staff cost ceilings by the sums surrendered empties the very mechanism of ceilings of its content for that year.
- Surrendering the sums under the European fund and PNRR titles moves resources out of a destination reserved for projects and towards the general needs of the budget.
- The ordinance mixes eleven unrelated subjects, which makes a parliamentary debate on each of them one by one impossible.
Practical advice
- If you follow the 2024 budget execution, bear in mind that allocations from the reserve fund towards current expenditure were made by government decisions published in the Official Gazette of Romania. That is where you see who received what and how much.
- For projects with European financing run in 2024, check whether the budget title they were paid from was affected by transfers of appropriations or by sums surrendered to the reserve fund.
- The institutions exempted from the economic and financial discipline measures are listed exhaustively in Article LXXVI paragraph (3) of Law no. 296/2023, in the wording given by this ordinance. Check the version in force, not the original one.
- If you work with documents issued by Imprimeria Națională, the objects of the company and its exclusive rights are those in Articles 1, 6 and 7 of Emergency Ordinance no. 199/2000, as rewritten in 2024.
- Do not confuse this ordinance with the 2024 amending budgets. It creates the mechanism, it does not move any particular sums.
- The full text of the approved ordinance is in Official Gazette of Romania no. 444 of 14 May 2024, as subsequently amended. The approval law does not reproduce it.
Frequently asked questions
What does this law do?
Does anything change for the 2026 budget?
What did the obligation to pay over 10% mean?
What happened if a ministry did not answer?
Could PNRR money be used for something else?
Why was it approved only now?
Editorial analysis
The ordinance approved here is a text that cannot be judged by its title. „Certain budget measures” in fact covers a temporary rewriting of the rules by which public money moves: the reserve fund becomes a source of current financing, ministries lose 10% of their appropriations within one working day, and the deficit ceilings can be exceeded by exactly the sums moved. Each of these measures, taken on its own, would have deserved a debate of its own.
None of it is unlawful, and the budget situation of 2024 explains the urgency. What is not explained is the interval. Two years and two months for an approval law that changes nothing means the mechanisms ran through a complete budget year, and that Parliament ruled on them once the argument had become purely historical. Parliamentary scrutiny of emergency ordinances, in this form, no longer scrutinises anything.
A final observation concerns legislative technique. Eleven articles touching the reserve fund, European funds, public debt, international arbitration, Imprimeria Națională, Complexul Energetic Oltenia and the 2024 elections do not add up to a coherent act. A single vote on a package like that cannot express a differentiated position, and blanket approval becomes the only realistic option.
What should be changed
- A constitutional deadline for approving emergency ordinances. Without one, parliamentary scrutiny stays formal, and acts with immediate effect on the budget hang in the balance for years.
- Restricting emergency ordinances to a single field. Such a rule would prevent packages of eleven unrelated articles and would make a debate on the substance possible.
- A reasonable deadline for releasing the appropriations. One working day, with the budget amended of the ministry’s own motion in the event of silence, leaves no room even for an internal check on what this does to projects under way.
- Public reporting of the sums surrendered from the European fund titles. If money intended for projects ends up in the reserve fund, that should be published separately, not inferred from the budget annexes.
- Separate reasons for exceeding the ceilings. A derogation from the Fiscal Responsibility Law should come with a note stating by how much each ceiling is exceeded and why.
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. 574 of 13 July 2026 16 pages PDF, 101 KB the act starts on page 3
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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.