In brief
- The rules for tanks, containers and metal drums holding gases under pressure are being rewritten from scratch, after 22 years under the 2003 prescription.
- Companies that fill such vessels have one year to obtain authorisation from ISCIR, the State Inspectorate for the Control of Boilers, Pressure Vessels and Lifting Equipment, and holders have the same year to send ISCIR a centralised record of their equipment.
- The new prescription runs to 139 articles, 15 chapters and 16 annexes, printed on 77 pages in a separate edition of the Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial).
Published: Official Gazette of Romania no. 708 of 26 August 2026
In force from: 26 August 2026
The propane cylinder at the filling station, the gas tank that supplies a depot and the industrial gas container all come, from 26 August, under a completely new set of technical rules. Order no. 1.281/2026 of the Minister of Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 708 of 26 August 2026, approves technical prescription PT C 12-2025 and repeals the 2003 prescription. It is the second round of rewriting the ISCIR rules this summer, after the six prescriptions approved in August.
The old prescription, PT C12-2003 first edition, had been approved by Order no. 337/2003 of the Minister of Economy and Trade and published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 97 of 2 February 2004. It is repealed on the date the new order enters into force.
The order went through the European notification procedure for technical regulations laid down by Directive (EU) 2015/1.535, transposed in Romania by Government Decision no. 1.016/2004. That is the step which allows the European Commission and the other member states to submit comments before adoption.
What it changes in practice
The first effect is to mark out the scope. The prescription applies to transportable pressure equipment with a maximum allowable pressure greater than 0.05 MPa (0.5 bar) at a temperature of +15 degrees Celsius, classified in annex no. 1.
The second effect is the list of exclusions. It leaves out equipment mounted on mobile platforms which is under pressure only during loading or unloading, whatever the pressure, and equipment for carrying liquids with an absolute vapour pressure at 50 degrees Celsius of up to and including 0.3 MPa (3 bar).
The third effect concerns the relationship with European law. The provisions apply only in so far as no other specific rules exist in Union harmonisation legislation, and equipment carrying the European marking is covered by the harmonised standards in ADR and RID.
The fourth effect is that the whole life cycle is covered. The 15 chapters regulate, in turn, authorisation or admission into service, filling, operation, periodic and intermediate inspection, repair, the estimation of the remaining service life, stamping and re-stamping, breakdowns and accidents, withdrawal from use and scrapping.
The fifth effect is the record-keeping obligation. Holders and users must send ISCIR, within one year of entry into force, a centralised record of all the transportable pressure equipment they hold.
The sixth effect reaches the filling operators. Legal persons that fill such equipment must obtain ISCIR authorisation for that activity within the same one-year period.
The seventh effect is traceability of filling. The prescription requires a filling record register, on the model in annex no. 5, listing the serial number and year of manufacture, the manufacturer, the capacity, the filling pressure or the mass of the charge, the fluid, the due date of the next check, the declaration of conformity and the person responsible who signs it. The register may be kept electronically, in which case the signature is replaced by another form of identification.
The eighth effect concerns declarations of conformity. Annex no. 6 sets out the model declaration for filling, by which the legal person guarantees on its own responsibility that the equipment it has filled does not endanger life, health and occupational safety and has no negative impact on the environment.
The ninth effect is procedural. Documents filed with ISCIR must be drawn up or translated into Romanian by an authorised translator, and copies must bear the wording „Conform cu originalul”, meaning certified true to the original, together with the signature of the legal representative. Electronic filing becomes possible once the single point of contact is up and running.
The tenth effect has to do with enforcement. ISCIR inspectors may carry out unannounced checks and may affix seals to installations that lack the operating authorisation or that are not safe to run.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
The first change is the age of the rules. The previous text dated from 2003 and was published in February 2004. Over those 22 years the European rules on transportable pressure equipment changed several times, and the Romanian prescription fell behind.
The second change is one of name and of concept. The old prescription spoke of „tank vessels, container vessels and drum vessels”. The new one uses the single notion of „transportable pressure equipment”, aligned with European terminology.
The third change is the new chapter on estimating the remaining service life, with annexes of its own for the investigation programme and for the final technical report. It is the mechanism by which an old piece of equipment can stay in use on the basis of a technical assessment rather than of its age alone.
The fourth change is the express authorisation of the filling activity. Until now the obligation carried no deadline; now it has one, of one year.
The fifth change is the possibility of derogations, with a written procedure: an application, an explanatory memorandum and any other documents, after which ISCIR either approves or refuses, in writing and with reasons.
The sixth change is the recognition of personnel from other states. For repairs and for the estimation of the remaining service life carried out by legal persons from a European Union member state or from the European Economic Area, authorised in equivalent fields, staff with equivalent responsibilities are treated as equivalent to staff authorised by ISCIR.
What does not change is the competent authority. ISCIR remains the body that authorises, checks, seals and grants derogations.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- A single, updated text replaces a 22-year-old prescription that had fallen behind the European rules.
- The terminology is aligned with the European one, which makes it easier to apply alongside ADR and RID.
- The filling register and the declaration of conformity create a documentary trail for every vessel filled.
- Estimating the remaining service life allows sound equipment to stay in use on the basis of a technical assessment.
- Personnel authorised in other member states are recognised, which opens up the repair market.
- The derogation procedure is written down and requires a reasoned answer, so it can be challenged.
What remains a problem
- The 77 pages of the prescription appear in a bis edition which the issuing ministry points to as something to be bought in print, not downloaded.
- The one-year deadline is the same for a large company and for a workshop with two employees, with no distinction whatsoever.
- Electronic filing still depends on the single point of contact becoming operational, and no deadline is set for that.
- The chapter on charges refers to separate rules, so the real cost of authorisation cannot be worked out from the act itself.
- The old prescription is repealed immediately while the new authorisation obligations run for a year, which calls for care as to which rule applies in the meantime.
- The list of standards in annex no. 16 is given as indicative, so it does not state clearly which of them are mandatory.
Practical advice
- If your company fills tanks, containers or drums with gases under pressure, start the ISCIR authorisation file now. The one-year period runs from 26 August 2026.
- If you hold or use such equipment, prepare the centralised record. It must be sent to ISCIR within the same one year.
- Check first whether the equipment falls within the scope: a maximum allowable pressure above 0.5 bar at +15 degrees Celsius, according to the classification in annex no. 1.
- If the equipment is mounted on a mobile platform and is under pressure only during loading or unloading, the prescription does not apply to it.
- Open the filling record register on the model in annex no. 5. It may be kept electronically, but it must contain all ten columns.
- Issue the declaration of conformity for filling on the model in annex no. 6 and send a copy to the holder or the user.
- If you need a derogation, file an application with an explanatory memorandum. ISCIR must reply in writing and give reasons.
- Have foreign documents translated by an authorised translator and mark the copies „Conform cu originalul”, signed by the legal representative.
- If you work with a repair company from another member state, check that it is authorised in an equivalent field in its home state. Its staff are then treated as equivalent to staff authorised by ISCIR.
Frequently asked questions
Which equipment does it apply to?
What is repealed?
What deadlines do I have?
Where do I find the full text?
What does the prescription contain?
Can I file the documents online?
Can derogations be obtained?
What can an ISCIR inspector do?
Editorial analysis
The update was needed and it came very late. A technical prescription from 2003, published in 2004, survived Romania’s accession to the European Union, the entry into force of the European rules on transportable pressure equipment and several generations of standards. The new text takes over the European terminology, declares itself subsidiary to harmonisation legislation and adds a whole chapter on estimating the remaining service life, which is precisely the tool that allows an old piece of equipment to be kept in use on technical criteria rather than on its age.
The problem is access to the text. The prescription runs to 77 pages and appears only in the bis edition, which the order points to as available for purchase from the public relations centre on Șoseaua Panduri. The people it is addressed to are filling operators, repair workshops and holders of industrial tanks, many of them small firms. Asking them to buy a printed copy of a rule that governs whether they may trade at all, in 2026, is an administrative barrier with no technical justification. This is the second time in the same issue of the Official Gazette of Romania that an act with direct effect on an occupational group publishes its useful part in a bis edition.
The second observation concerns the single one-year deadline. It is reasonable for a company with a compliance department and tight for a workshop filling cylinders in a small town. The prescription provides for no staging by capacity or by volume of activity, even though the chapter on administrative measures applies to everyone alike.
The third observation is about costs. Chapter XIII is entitled „Tarife”, that is charges, but it refers to separate rules. An operator who wants to know today what authorisation will cost has to look elsewhere, and the order does not say where.
What should be changed
- Free publication of the prescription in electronic form, on the ISCIR and ministry websites. A technical text that is mandatory for a whole category of operators should not depend on buying a printed edition at a counter in Bucharest.
- Staging of the deadline for authorising the filling activity, according to the capacity of the installation. That would give small workshops the time they need without delaying compliance by the large operators, which already have compliance structures in place.
- An express reference, in the chapter on charges, to the act that sets the amounts. A chapter entitled „Tarife” that contains no figure and does not identify one either forces the reader to hunt down the applicable rule alone.
- A deadline for making the electronic single point of contact operational. Online filing has been promised since 2009, by Government Emergency Ordinance no. 49/2009, and the prescription once again makes filing conditional on it without saying by when.
- A split, in annex no. 16, between mandatory standards and indicative ones. The list is declared to be indicative, which leaves the operator and the inspector free to read the same requirement in different ways.
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. 708 of 26 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 108 KB the act starts on page 10
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The other editions cited: nr. 708 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.