In brief
- The Government has divided the 16,680,055,394 euros borrowed from the European Union through the SAFE instrument between eight institutions. The Ministry of Defence takes 58.2%, the Ministry of Transport 25.2%, the Ministry of Internal Affairs 12.6%.
- The money may be used only for the projects approved through the Investment Plan for the European defence industry, a document the decision refers to but does not publish.
- The next day, the same Ministry of Transport was given 135.6 million lei from the reserve fund, so that ROMATSA can pay its staff and its operational safety costs.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 724 of 28 August 2026
In force from: 28 August 2026
The largest sum Romania has ever borrowed for defence has had, since Friday, a list of recipients. Government Decision no. 680/2026 allocates the 16.68 billion euros from the SAFE instrument to eight institutions, and the same issue of the Official Gazette of Romania also carries Decision no. 683/2026, through which the Ministry of Transport receives 135.6 million lei from the budgetary reserve fund for ROMATSA. The loan itself had been ratified in August, through Law no. 167/2026.
SAFE, short for „Security Action for Europe”, is an instrument through which the European Union borrows on the markets and passes the money on to member states, again as a loan, for purchases and investment in the defence industry. It is not a grant: the loan agreement between the European Union and Romania was signed in Bucharest on 12 May 2026 and in Brussels on 20 and 21 May 2026, and the money is repaid.
Also on 28 August 2026, five state company budgets were approved, Government Decisions no. 666 to no. 670/2026, among them CNAIR’s, with investment of 19.5 billion lei.
What it changes in practice
The first effect is the split. The Ministry of National Defence receives 9,702,184,144 euros, that is 58.2% of the total. The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure receives 4,200,000,000 euros, 25.2%. The Ministry of Internal Affairs receives 2,104,379,096 euros, 12.6%. Together, the three ministries take 96% of the sum.
The second effect concerns the intelligence and protection services. The Romanian Intelligence Service receives 501,253,410 euros, the Protection and Guard Service 68,159,348, the Special Telecommunications Service 38,530,398 and the Foreign Intelligence Service 32,348,898. The four together come to 640,292,054 euros, that is 3.8% of the total.
The third effect is the appearance of an institution that does not usually figure in defence budgets: the National Administration of Penitentiaries, with 33,200,100 euros. The decision is countersigned, among others, by the acting Minister of Justice, who has the prison administration under his authority.
The fourth effect is the restriction on use. Article 3 says that the sums allocated are to be used exclusively to finance the projects approved through the Investment Plan for the European defence industry, on the terms of Regulation (EU) 2025/1106. The allocation itself, under Article 2, is made in accordance with the same plan.
The fifth effect comes from the second decision. The budget of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure for 2026 is supplemented by 135,622 thousand lei, in both commitment appropriations and budget appropriations, under budget chapter 84.01 „Transporturi”, Transport, title 55 „Alte transferuri”, Other transfers. The money goes to the autonomous authority Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration, ROMATSA, for the costs essential to maintaining operational safety, for staff costs and for the obligations arising under the applicable legislation.
The sixth effect is the duty to hand money back. Any sums left unused from the ROMATSA allocation return to the Government’s budgetary reserve fund by the end of 2026.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
Until now the loan existed but the recipients did not. Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/368 of 11 February 2026 made the financial assistance available to Romania; the loan agreement was signed in May; Law no. 167/2026 brought it into domestic law. The present decision is the step that turns a global sum into eight institutional budgets.
The legal basis for the allocation has changed as well. The split is made under Article 8^2(2) of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 62/2025, the act implementing the European regulation, approved with additions by Law no. 4/2026. The beneficiary institutions are those listed in Article 1^1(1)(c) of the same ordinance.
For ROMATSA, what changes is the source of the money, not its destination. The authority is financed mainly from the en route air navigation charges collected within the EUROCONTROL system. The allocation from the reserve fund is made under Article 14(1) of Government Ordinance no. 46/1998, the act through which Romania organised the obligations arising from its accession to the EUROCONTROL Convention.
ROMATSA now has a new reserve of instructors as well: former military air traffic controllers may teach on civil simulators, provided the Romanian Civil Aeronautical Authority checks their licence.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- The global sum becomes public institution by institution, with figures down to the euro rather than in rough percentages.
- The total in the annex closes exactly at 16,680,055,394 euros, so the split leaves no unallocated remainder.
- The restriction on use is written down expressly: only projects approved through the Investment Plan for the European defence industry.
- The allocation for ROMATSA comes with an obligation to hand back unused sums by the end of the year, so nothing is left sitting in the account.
- The money for ROMATSA covers operational safety and staff costs, which is precisely the area where an interruption would hit air traffic.
- The allocation decision is countersigned by all the beneficiary institutions, which shows agreement on the figures.
What remains a problem
- The Investment Plan for the European defence industry, the document that decides what is bought with 16.68 billion euros, is neither published nor annexed to the decision.
- The split comes with no reasoning at all: there is no way of seeing why Transport gets a quarter and why the services get 3.8%.
- The sum for the Ministry of Transport is the only round one in the whole table, which suggests a figure set globally rather than built up from projects.
- The money is a loan, but the decision says nothing about the repayment schedule or about the effect on public debt.
- The ROMATSA allocation does not explain why the en route charges failed to cover the authority’s staff costs.
- The National Administration of Penitentiaries receives 33.2 million euros from a defence instrument, without the act saying what for.
Practical advice
- Defence industry firms: the split by institution shows where the orders will come from. Almost 96% of the money passes through three ministries, Defence, Transport and Internal Affairs.
- Keep an eye on the Investment Plan for the European defence industry. Without it, the decision tells you who has the money but not what they are buying.
- Check the conditions in Regulation (EU) 2025/1106 before preparing a bid. Article 3 of the decision makes them binding for any project financed from these sums.
- For infrastructure projects with a defence component, the counterpart is the Ministry of Transport, which has the second largest allocation, 4.2 billion euros.
- ROMATSA staff and partners: the allocation of 135.6 million lei covers staff costs and operational safety costs for 2026, and whatever is left unused is handed back by the end of the year.
- Bear in mind that SAFE is a loan, not a grant. The sums in the annex enter the public debt and are repaid.
Frequently asked questions
Who takes the most money?
Is this non-repayable European money?
What may the money be spent on?
Why does the National Administration of Penitentiaries appear among the beneficiaries?
What has ROMATSA to do with SAFE?
What happens to the money ROMATSA does not use?
Editorial analysis
The allocation decision does something acts of this kind rarely do: it closes the figure. The eight sums in the annex add up to exactly 16,680,055,394 euros, the printed total, down to the last euro. Nothing is left unallocated and nothing is allocated twice, which, at a sum of this size, is worth saying.
What is not visible when reading the act shows up when you look at the shape of the figures. Seven of the eight sums are irregular, down to the last euro: 9,702,184,144, 2,104,379,096, 501,253,410, 68,159,348. These are figures that come out of adding up projects. The eighth, that of the Ministry of Transport, is 4,200,000,000, round to the hundred million. The difference in form says something about method: for seven institutions the sum looks built from the bottom up, from lists of costed purchases, while for transport it looks fixed from the top, as a global ceiling that the investment plan is yet to fill. It is not an error, but it is the only public trace of how the split was decided, because the act contains no reasoning whatever.
The second observation concerns the missing document. Articles 2 and 3 make the Investment Plan for the European defence industry the condition for the use of every euro. The plan is not annexed, is not published and no approving act is indicated for it. The result is that the list of recipients is published but not the list of destinations, and public scrutiny over the largest sum ever borrowed for defence stops at the names of the ministries.
The third observation comes from placing the two decisions side by side. The Ministry of Transport appears in both, a day apart. In the first, it is allocated 4.2 billion euros for projects in the European defence plan. In the second, signed the next day, the ministry needs 135.6 million lei from the reserve fund so that ROMATSA, the authority that directs the country’s air traffic, can cover its staff costs and its operational safety costs. The two figures cannot offset one another: one comes from a European loan with a locked destination, the other pays salaries out of a budgetary reserve. Their appearance in the same issue of the Gazette nevertheless shows that a state can borrow billions for investment and, at the same time, run short of money for the day-to-day running of an essential public authority.
What should be changed
- Publishing the Investment Plan for the European defence industry. It is the document on which the use of 16.68 billion euros depends, and the decision makes it binding without showing it to anyone.
- A public explanatory note for the split. The figure for each institution should be traceable back to the categories of project that produced it, especially where the sum is a round one.
- A drawdown and repayment schedule. The act allocates a loan without saying how long there is to spend it and how long there is to pay it back, even though both enter the public debt.
- An explanation of the allocation to the National Administration of Penitentiaries. The institution receives 33.2 million euros from an instrument dedicated to the defence industry; a single sentence would settle the matter.
- A structural solution for financing ROMATSA. One-off allocations from the reserve fund for the salaries of an authority financed from en route charges treat the symptom, not the cause.
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. 724 of 28 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 120 KB the act starts on page 13
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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.