In brief

  • Parliament approves, without amendments, the February 2025 ordinance that suspended for the whole of 2025 the issuing of payment titles for the restitution compensation awarded by the National Authority for Property Restitution.
  • The same ordinance set monthly reporting deadlines for all public institutions, rewrote the rules of the commitment control system and changed the funding of the National Anticorruption Directorate and of AMEPIP.
  • Those concerned are the authorising officers across the whole administration, the administrative-territorial units, the people still waiting for compensation and the public interest entities with an audit committee.
Act: Law no. 148/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 588 of 20 July 2026
In force from: 23 July 2026

The ordinance that halted for an entire year the payment of compensation for properties abusively taken over by the communist regime now receives Parliament’s endorsement. Law no. 148/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 588 of 20 July 2026, approves Government Ordinance no. 10/2025 without any amendment. The ordinance had touched eleven normative acts at once, among them the ordinance on the corporate governance of public enterprises.

The approved ordinance was adopted under the law empowering the Government, Law no. 332/2024, and published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 95 of 1 February 2025. Its title, „on the amendment and supplementation of certain normative acts”, hides a heterogeneous package of budgetary discipline measures.

The approving law adds nothing. It has a single article, by which the ordinance is approved, and it expressly states the basis of the empowerment: Article 1, points I.3 and I.4 of Law no. 332/2024.

What it changes in practice

The first effect, the most visible one for citizens, is the confirmation of the suspension of restitution payments. Article V of the ordinance halted, during 2025, the issuing by the National Authority for Property Restitution of the payment titles granted under Law no. 165/2013, Law no. 164/2014, Law no. 9/1998 and Law no. 290/2003. The suspension covered both the compensation for properties abusively taken over by the communist regime and the compensation for assets left in Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region, or transferred into the ownership of the Bulgarian state after the Treaty of Craiova.

It must be said plainly: the measure was limited to 2025. The present approval neither extends it nor brings it back into force. It confirms that the halt was lawful during the period in which it applied.

The second effect concerns the financial reporting of public institutions. Article I added a fixed deadline to Accounting Law no. 82/1991: the individual forms are submitted into the national reporting system by the 20th of the following month inclusive, for monthly and quarterly reporting, and by the 30th inclusive, for the annual reporting on the closing of the financial year. The rule applies to tertiary, secondary and principal authorising officers alike.

The third effect is the most technical one, but it carries heavy consequences in practice. The ordinance rewrote several articles of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 88/2013, which governs the commitment control system. Every legal commitment receives a unique code, valid for its entire duration, and the registration is made before signature. Higher-ranking authorising officers take over the reporting for the subordinate institutions that cannot meet their obligations, and the penalties apply to them as well. Anyone who fails to report loses access to the system functions covering the registration of commitments and the making of payments through the State Treasury.

The fourth effect concerns local public finances. Article 42 of Law no. 273/2006 was repealed, and in 2025 the local deliberative authorities were allowed to use the unallocated surplus of previous years for the repayment of contracted loans as well. In the same period, until 3 March 2025, the administrative-territorial units were able to submit to the Ministry of Finance the documentation for guaranteeing the loans taken out by district heating operators, for the fuel needed in the cold season.

The fifth effect concerns the National Anticorruption Directorate. Its chief prosecutor becomes a secondary authorising officer, the directorate’s funds are shown separately in the budget of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, and every year a deposit of at least 2 million lei is set up for flagrant corruption offences, together with a special fund of 3 million lei for operational expenditure.

The sixth effect reaches public enterprises. Where the public tutelary authority is other than the institution that exercises the shareholder role on behalf of the State, the role of tutelary authority falls to the body that coordinates the enterprise or has it under its subordination. And the Authority for the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Performance of Public Enterprises is financed entirely from its own revenues, with a budget approved by Government decision.

The seventh effect targets the audit committees of public interest entities. At least one member must be a financial auditor authorised and registered in the electronic public register of Romania, of another member state, of the European Economic Area or of Switzerland, or must have at least three years of experience in statutory audit, proven by documents. The compliance deadline was 30 September 2025.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Compared with the text of the ordinance, nothing. The law approves it in the form published in February 2025.

Compared with the regime that preceded the ordinance, the substantive changes were the ones set out above. The most important for private individuals was the temporary halt to restitution payments. Until then, the National Authority for Property Restitution issued the payment titles in the order and under the conditions laid down by Law no. 165/2013.

On financial reporting, until the ordinance the deadlines were not fixed in the Accounting Law but in rules and procedures. Moving them into the law gave them force and tied them to the penalties of the commitment control system.

At the National Anticorruption Directorate, the change of status, from an earlier arrangement to that of secondary authorising officer, with funds shown separately, was a clarification of budgetary architecture, not an increase of the budget as such.

What the approval does not change is the calendar. The temporary measures in the ordinance, the ones marked „in 2025”, have run their course. The approving law does not revive them.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • It closes the parliamentary procedure on an act that produced financial effects throughout 2025.
  • Reporting deadlines written directly into the Accounting Law are harder to change and easier to check than deadlines kept in internal procedures.
  • The unique code of the legal commitment, valid for its entire duration, reduces the duplication in the records of public commitments.
  • Having the higher-ranking authorising officer take over the reporting solves the situation of small institutions that lack the technical capacity to report.
  • Clarifying which body is the tutelary authority at public enterprises removes a frequent source of conflict between institutions.

What remains a problem

  • The suspension of restitution payments hit people who had been waiting for compensation for years, and the parliamentary approval arrives without any measure to compensate for the delay.
  • An act that amends eleven different laws, from accounting to the National Anticorruption Directorate, is hard for its addressees to follow.
  • Restricting access to the Treasury payment functions, as a penalty for failure to report, can block institutions that simply have no staff, not only those acting in bad faith.
  • The approval comes a year and a half after the ordinance was published, an interval in which the addressees applied a text still subject to parliamentary scrutiny.
  • Financing entirely from its own revenues the authority that monitors public enterprises raises the question of its independence from the entities it evaluates.

Practical advice

  1. If you are waiting for a payment title from the National Authority for Property Restitution, check the status of your file. The suspension concerned only 2025, and the approval by law does not extend it.
  2. For public institutions: the two deadlines in the Accounting Law, the 20th and the 30th of the following month, are now statutory text. Put them in the internal calendar of the finance department.
  3. Check whether every legal commitment still running has a unique code in the commitment control system. Without it, payments through the Treasury can be blocked.
  4. Principal and secondary authorising officers should know that they also answer for the reporting taken over from subordinate institutions. The penalties in Articles 27 and 28 of Emergency Ordinance no. 88/2013 apply to them directly.
  5. If you run a public interest entity, check whether at least one member of the audit committee meets the condition of authorised financial auditor or of three years of experience in statutory audit.
  6. For town halls: the repeal of Article 42 of the Law on local public finances changes the legal basis of certain budget execution operations. Check the internal procedure before applying it by analogy with previous years.
  7. When you cite the ordinance in an administrative act, mention the approving law as well. The full reference is Government Ordinance no. 10/2025, approved by Law no. 148/2026.

Frequently asked questions

Are the payments for restitution compensation still suspended?
The ordinance suspended the issuing of payment titles during 2025. The approving law does not extend the measure and does not add a new period of suspension.
Which compensation laws were concerned?
Law no. 165/2013 on the completion of the restitution process, Law no. 164/2014 and, through the reference it makes, Law no. 9/1998 and Law no. 290/2003, which cover the assets left in Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region and those transferred into the ownership of the Bulgarian state.
What are the new reporting deadlines for public institutions?
By the 20th inclusive of the month following the reporting month, for monthly and quarterly reporting, and by the 30th inclusive of the following month, for the annual reporting on the closing of the financial year.
What happens if an institution fails to report?
The penalties in Articles 27 and 28 of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 88/2013 apply, and access to the system functions covering the registration of legal commitments and the making of payments through the State Treasury may be restricted.
What changes at the National Anticorruption Directorate?
The chief prosecutor becomes a secondary authorising officer, the funds are shown separately in the budget of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, and every year a deposit of at least 2 million lei and a special fund of 3 million lei for operational expenditure are set up.
Why is this a simple ordinance and not an emergency one?
Because it was adopted during the period in which the Government was empowered to legislate, under Law no. 332/2024. Simple ordinances may be issued only in the fields and within the interval laid down by the empowering law.
What does it mean that AMEPIP is financed from its own revenues?
That the financing of the current and capital expenditure of the authority monitoring public enterprises no longer comes from the state budget. Its annual budget of revenues and expenditure is approved by Government decision.

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. 588 of 20 July 2026 16 pages PDF, 110 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.