In brief

  • The mandatory clause in procurement contracts is rewritten, on a different legal basis. Beneficiaries of EU funds have to provide, in the procurement contracts relating to the core activity, that contractors and subcontractors compile and keep up to date the documentation on the execution of the works, the documentation that goes into the technical book of the construction („cartea tehnică a construcției”), now governed by Articles 529 and 530 of Law no. 169/2026 on the Code on Spatial Planning, Urban Planning and Construction. The contractor’s obligation to make available to the beneficiary any document or information needed to verify the contract is untouched.
  • Managing authorities and intermediate bodies have until 5 November 2026. The order gives them 15 days from its entry into force to update their own documents and procedures. The order sets no date of entry into force for itself, so it takes effect on publication, 21 October 2026, and the 15 days run out on 5 November 2026.
  • All the programmes under Cohesion Policy 2021-2027 are covered. The programmes co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Social Fund Plus and the Just Transition Fund, under the Investment for jobs and growth goal. In practice, every town hall, county council, hospital, school or company with a works contract under way financed from this money.
Act: Order of the Minister of Investments and European Projects no. 1.592/2026 amending Article 7(4^2) of the annex to Order of the Minister of Investments and European Projects no. 2.041/2023 approving the model financing contract provided for in Article 14(2) of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 23/2023
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial), Part I, no. 881 of 21 October 2026, page 10
Who it concerns: beneficiaries of EU funds with works contracts under way (town halls, county councils, hospitals, schools, companies), their builders and subcontractors, the managing authorities and the intermediate bodies
Takes effect: 21 October 2026, because the order provides no other date, and the normative acts of central public administration bodies that set no date for themselves enter into force on the date of publication

The Ministry of Investments and European Projects has changed a single sentence in the model financing contract used for every programme under Cohesion Policy 2021-2027, and that sentence ends up in thousands of procurement contracts. Order no. 1.592/2026, published on 21 October 2026, rewrites Article 7(4^2) of the annex to Order no. 2.041/2023 and moves the legal basis of the clause on the technical book of the construction to Articles 529 and 530 of Law no. 169/2026 on the Code on Spatial Planning, Urban Planning and Construction.

For the beneficiary building with EU money, the substance of the obligation does not move: it still has to require, in the procurement contracts relating to the core activity, that the contractor and its subcontractors compile and keep up to date the documentation on the execution of the works, the documentation that makes up the technical book, and that they hand over on request any document or information it needs in order to check how the contract is being performed. What changes is the article of law the clause rests on. A procurement contract signed after 21 October 2026 that still points to the old basis cites a rule that has been replaced, and at an expenditure verification the discussion turns on exactly that kind of detail.

The order was signed by the Minister of Investments and European Projects on 16 October 2026, on the basis of the approval report of the Directorate-General for Programming and System Coordination no. 131.139 of 8 October 2026, and its competence basis is Article 14(5) of Government Decision no. 52/2018. Its implementation is entrusted, by Article III, to the managing authorities and the intermediate bodies, together with the SMIS and IT Coordination Directorate.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is immediate and falls on the beneficiary. From 21 October 2026, the correct wording of the clause is the new one, and the model financing contract approved by Order no. 2.041/2023 now carries the reference to Articles 529 and 530 of Law no. 169/2026. Beneficiaries whose financing contracts were signed on the old model keep the same obligation in substance, but every procurement contract they conclude from now on has to carry the current legal basis.

The second effect comes with a deadline. Article II requires the managing authorities and the intermediate bodies of the programmes co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Social Fund Plus and the Just Transition Fund to update their own documents and procedures within 15 days of the entry into force of the order. Since the order enters into force on publication, on 21 October 2026, the deadline falls on 5 November 2026. Until that date, the applicant’s guides, the instructions, the checklists and the model contracts published on the authorities’ websites may still point to the old legal basis.

The third effect concerns verification. The clause on the execution documentation is one of the points the managing authority checks when it reviews a beneficiary’s procurement contract. With the legal basis changed, the checklist changes with it, and a procurement contract that contains the clause in no version at all remains just as serious a case of non-compliance as before.

What the order does not do: it does not change the amount of the funding, it does not touch the implementation deadlines, it introduces no new sanction and it says nothing about procurement contracts already signed. On that last point, its silence is in fact the main practical question.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Before, the same clause existed in the model financing contract, with the same content, but pointing to the rules on quality in construction that were in force when Order no. 2.041/2023 was approved, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 475 of 29 May 2023. Law no. 169/2026 on the Code on Spatial Planning, Urban Planning and Construction gathered the field into a single body of rules, and the technical book of the construction is now found in Articles 529 and 530.

Worth noting is that the order publishes only the new wording of paragraph (4^2), not the old one. A reader of the Official Gazette of Romania does not get the replaced text out of this act, so the two versions cannot be compared without opening Order no. 2.041/2023 in its earlier form. The difference that can be stated with certainty on the published text is the difference in legal basis, not a difference in the content of the obligation: the new wording keeps the core activity as its scope, keeps the circle of those bound, contractors and subcontractors, and keeps the duty to make documents available.

The architecture of administrative responsibility has changed as well. Article III adds the SMIS and IT Coordination Directorate alongside the managing authorities and the intermediate bodies, which ties the amendment to the IT system through which the programmes are managed, not only to the paper of the contract.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • It brings the model financing contract into line with the legislation in force, so the beneficiary no longer has to guess what a reference to a replaced rule means.
  • It does not change the content of the obligation, so nobody has to redo documentation already compiled on site.
  • It sets a short, verifiable deadline for the administration, 15 days, not a vague formula of the „without delay” kind.
  • It applies uniformly across all four funds, so it does not create four different regimes for the same type of clause.
  • It expressly keeps the beneficiary’s right to ask the builder for any document needed for verification, which preserves its contractual leverage before the managing authority.
  • The amended text is reproduced in full, not by cross-reference, so the clause can be copied straight into the procurement contract.

What remains a problem

  • There is no transitional provision for procurement contracts under way, signed on the old legal basis. The beneficiary does not learn from the order whether it has to amend them by addendum or not.
  • The beneficiary’s obligation applies from 21 October 2026, while the managing authority has until 5 November 2026 to bring its own documents up to date. That leaves a 15-day window in which the official guide may contradict the model contract.
  • If the managing authority misses the 15-day deadline, the act provides no consequence, even though for the beneficiary a missing clause turns into a financial correction.
  • Nothing is said about financing contracts signed earlier, which carry the old wording of the clause in their own text. If the annex is to be regarded as amended by operation of law, it would have helped to write it down.
  • There is no correspondence note between the earlier rules and Articles 529 and 530 of Law no. 169/2026, so every beneficiary redoes that check alone.
  • Nothing at all is said about who bears the cost of any addenda to the procurement contracts, at a time when builders already have reasons to renegotiate.

Practical advice

  1. If you sign a procurement contract for the core activity after 21 October 2026, copy the clause in its new wording, with an express reference to Articles 529 and 530 of Law no. 169/2026, and not to the earlier rules.
  2. Draw up an inventory of the procurement contracts under way that carry the old clause and ask the managing authority in writing whether it expects an addendum. A written answer protects you at the expenditure verification.
  3. Note 5 November 2026 as the date from which the guides, instructions and models published by the managing authority ought to be up to date already. If on 6 November 2026 they still cite the old basis, ask for an official clarification before you sign.
  4. Check in your own financing contract whether Article 7(4^2) is reproduced in the body of the contract and not merely referred to through the annex. If it is reproduced, flag the difference to the managing authority, so that it is not held against you at a control.
  5. Ask the builder and the subcontractors to confirm that the documentation on the execution of the works is compiled and kept up to date as the works advance, not at handover. In the wording of the clause this obligation is a continuing one.
  6. Keep proof of the moment when you sent the contractor the request to amend the clause. The date you sent it counts for more than the date it answers.
  7. If you are a contracting authority with an award procedure under way, correct the tender documentation before the contract is signed, not afterwards. An addendum on the legal basis is more expensive and harder to justify than a clarification during the procedure.

Frequently asked questions

From what day does the order apply?
From 21 October 2026, the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 881. The order provides no other date, and the normative acts of central public administration bodies that set no deadline for themselves enter into force on the date of publication.
By when do the managing authorities have to update their procedures?
By 5 November 2026. Article II gives them 15 days from the entry into force of the order, and the order entered into force on 21 October 2026.
What exactly has changed in the clause?
The legal basis of the documentation on the execution of the works, the documentation belonging to the technical book of the construction. The new wording points to Articles 529 and 530 of Law no. 169/2026 on the Code on Spatial Planning, Urban Planning and Construction. The content of the obligation, the circle of those who owe it and the beneficiary’s right to ask for the documents are the same in the published text.
Do I have to amend procurement contracts already signed?
The order says nothing about them, one way or the other. The practical answer is therefore obtained in writing from the managing authority or the intermediate body handling your financing contract, before the next payment claim.
Who does the obligation in the clause apply to?
To the beneficiary’s contractors and subcontractors, for the procurement contracts relating to the core activity. The beneficiary is the one obliged to provide for the clause; the builders are the ones who carry it out.
Which programmes are covered?
The programmes co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Social Fund Plus and the Just Transition Fund, under the Investment for jobs and growth goal, for the 2021-2027 programming period.
Does anything change in the amount of the funding or in the project deadlines?
No. The order touches a single paragraph of the model financing contract and contains no provision on amounts, co-financing rates or the duration of implementation.
What happens if I do not include the clause in the procurement contract?
The act lays down no sanction of its own, but the clause is part of the beneficiary’s obligations assumed through the financing contract. Its absence is a case of non-compliance that comes up at the verification of procurement and expenditure, with the usual risk of a financial correction.
What happens if the managing authority misses the 15-day deadline?
The act provides no consequence. The beneficiary’s obligation nevertheless applies from 21 October 2026, whatever the pace of the administration, so a delay on the authority’s side is not a reason for the beneficiary to wait.
Where do I find the old wording of the clause, so I can compare?
Not in this order, which publishes only the new wording. The earlier text is in Order no. 2.041/2023, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 475 of 29 May 2023, in the form it had before 21 October 2026.

Editorial analysis

Technically the act is clean and does exactly what an alignment order should do: it changes a reference that no longer has an object and does not take the opportunity to rewrite anything else. It has no internal contradictions, no deadlines that cancel each other out and it leaves no category without a rule. Its problem is not in the text, it is in what the text does not say.

The asymmetry of pace shows up as soon as the two dates in the act are put side by side. The beneficiary owes the clause in its new wording from 21 October 2026, that is without a single day of grace, because the model contract is amended on publication. The administration gives itself 15 days, until 5 November 2026, to bring its own documents and procedures up to date. During those 15 days, a beneficiary signing a procurement contract reads the old reference in the managing authority’s official guide, published on its website, and the new reference in the model financing contract. Of the two, the one that binds it is the one the administration has not published yet. The score is 15 to nil, and it appears nowhere in the order.

The second observation comes from putting Article I together with the order’s silence. The amendment is made to the annex to Order no. 2.041/2023, that is to the model financing contract, not to the financing contracts already signed on that model. A contract signed in 2024 carries the old wording of paragraph (4^2) in its own body. Without a provision saying whether that clause is to be regarded as amended by operation of law, the beneficiary holds two texts that say different things about the same legal basis, and neither of them is wrong. This is the point at which the order needed a sentence it did not write.

Its own chronology, on the other hand, shows an administration that moved fast: the approval report is dated 8 October 2026, the order is signed on 16 October 2026, so 8 days later, and published on 21 October 2026, 5 days after signature. Thirteen days from report to the Official Gazette of Romania is a good pace for a legislative alignment, and that makes it even harder to explain why updating the same administration’s own documents gets a 15-day deadline with no verification mechanism attached.

What should be changed

  • A transitional provision for procurement contracts under way. A single sentence saying whether the reference to the earlier rules is to be regarded as replaced by operation of law would spare thousands of beneficiaries a pointless addendum and a discussion at every expenditure verification.
  • A clarification on financing contracts already signed. If the amendment to the annex carries over to contracts concluded on the old model, it has to be written in the order. Otherwise each managing authority will answer the same question differently.
  • Alignment of the two deadlines. If the administration needs 15 days for its procedures, then the clause in its new wording should be required of the beneficiary from the same date, 5 November 2026, and not from 21 October 2026. The window of contradiction disappears at no cost.
  • A correspondence table published by the ministry. A list showing which article of the new Code replaces each reference in the model contracts would settle the problem once for all beneficiaries, instead of having it redone inside every implementation team.
  • An obligation to publish, not merely to update. Article II requires the managing authorities to update their documents; it should also require them to publish the updated version, with a date, on the programme page. Without publication, nobody outside can check the 15-day deadline.
  • A mention of the cost of addenda. If the change of legal basis calls for an addendum to the procurement contract, the order should state that this is an administrative amendment with no effect on the contract price, so that it does not become a bargaining point on site.

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. 881 of 21 October 2026, page 10 16 pages PDF, 136 KB the act starts on page 10

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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.