In brief

  • The National House of Public Pensions has approved 13 new pension decision forms, from the old-age pension through to the recovery of amounts unduly received, and has repealed the forms in use since October 2024.
  • The substantive novelty is that decisions issued by the territorial pension houses carry the institution’s qualified electronic seal, and the electronic document issued in this way is treated as an authentic instrument.
  • The forms change neither pension entitlements nor time limits: a decision can be challenged in court within 45 days of communication, and, in the case of international pensions, the decision granting a pension application can be annulled at the pensioner’s request within 30 days.
Act: CNPP Order no. 197/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 684 of 19 August 2026
Issued: 12 August 2026

The paper that lands at home with a pension decision on it is changing again, less than two years after the previous version. Order no. 197/2026 of the President of the National House of Public Pensions (CNPP) approves 13 decision forms used in applying Law no. 360/2023, the public pension system law under which the recalculations upheld by the Constitutional Court were also carried out, and repeals Order no. 1.579/2024, which had approved the previous forms. The order was published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 684 of 19 August 2026, and the 13 annexes, that is the forms themselves, appeared the same day in issue no. 684 bis, across 33 pages.

The list of forms covers practically the whole life cycle of a pension file: granting the old-age pension, the early retirement pension, the invalidity pension and the survivor’s pension, suspending and terminating payment of the pension or of the carer’s allowance, annulling the pension decision, resuming payment, recovering amounts unduly received, plus four forms for international pensions, granted on the basis of the European social security coordination regulations and of the bilateral agreements to which Romania is a party.

Compared with the order it replaces, the 2026 text keeps the same structure of the forms. The entries in the decision are the same: retirement age, standard age, age reductions, contribution periods broken down across dozens of items, the number of points achieved. The difference lies in two places: in the legal basis invoked and in a new article that did not exist in 2024.

What it changes in practice

The first effect, and the most important one, is the one in Article 5. As of the date the order enters into force, decisions issued by the territorial pension houses, the county-level offices of the CNPP, carry the qualified electronic seal of the issuing institution, under Law no. 214/2024 on the use of the electronic signature, the time stamp and the provision of trust services. The order says explicitly what this means: applying the seal attests to the integrity of the content and to the origin of the decision, in accordance with Article 4(2) of Law no. 214/2024, and the electronic document thus issued is treated as an authentic instrument.

In everyday terms, a pension decision received in electronic form, with the pension house seal applied to it, has the same force as a document signed and stamped on paper. It no longer needs to be legalised, it does not have to be confirmed at a counter, and it cannot be rejected by another institution on the ground that it does not bear a handwritten signature.

The second effect concerns administrative continuity. Order no. 1.579/2024 is repealed on the date the new order enters into force, so the territorial pension houses can no longer issue decisions on the old forms. Decisions already communicated remain valid: the repeal concerns the model form used from now on, not the individual acts issued earlier on its basis.

The third effect is a matter of vocabulary, but with practical consequences for anyone searching for information. The four forms for pensions with a foreign component are now called „decision on granting the international pension”, without the word „Community”, which appeared in the „international/Community” pairing in the 2024 order. The new name covers in the same way the entitlements established under Regulations (EC) no. 883/2004 and no. 987/2009, under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom and under the bilateral social security agreements.

The fourth effect concerns signing. Decisions continue to be issued in two counterparts that state in full the surname and first name of the executive director or, as the case may be, of the deputy executive director of the Benefits Determination and Payment Directorate or of the head of the local pension house. One counterpart is communicated to the applicant, the other is filed in the beneficiary’s file. Signing by the deputy executive director or by the head of the local pension house is possible only after a delegation of powers approved by the President of the National House of Public Pensions has been obtained.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Order no. 1.579/2024, issued on 12 September 2024 and published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 1031 of 15 October 2024, approved the same 13 forms, with the same entries. A comparison of the two texts shows three differences.

First: the legal basis. The 2024 order relied on the pension law, on its implementing rules, on the two European regulations, on the agreement with the United Kingdom and on the bilateral agreements. The 2026 order adds to that list Law no. 214/2024 on the use of the electronic signature, the time stamp and the provision of trust services. That is precisely the basis it needed for the electronic seal.

Second: the article on the seal. In 2024 there was no text at all on the electronic form of the decision. That order had six articles and stopped at publication. The 2026 order has nine: alongside Article 5, which introduces the qualified electronic seal and establishes its legal value, there are Article 8, which repeals the 2024 order, and Article 9, on the transmission of the order within the institution.

Third: the name of pensions with a foreign element, discussed above, where the term „Community” has disappeared.

What has not changed deserves to be said just as clearly, because this is where most of the confusion arises. The time limits for challenging a decision are identical in the two orders: 45 days from communication for an appeal to the competent court and 30 days for the pensioner’s request to annul the decision granting the pension application, in the case of the forms for international pensions. The entries in the forms, including the breakdown of the contribution period by normal conditions, work groups I and II, difficult conditions and the categories of special conditions, are the same. The number of points is calculated on the basis of the same eight items.

In other words, anyone who receives a new decision will not see figures other than those they would have seen on the old form. What changes is the medium and the legal force of the electronic document, not the way the pension is calculated.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • An electronic decision bearing a qualified seal is treated as an authentic instrument, so it can be used as such at a bank, at the town hall or at any institution that asks for proof of income, with no trip to the pension house for a stamped copy.
  • The seal attests to the integrity of the content and to the origin of the document, which makes a pension decision harder to forge than a photocopied sheet of paper.
  • The forms keep identical entries, so nobody has to learn a new document, and a comparison with an older decision remains possible item by item.
  • The terminology sheds an outdated formula: pensions established on the basis of the European regulations are called simply international, without the „Community” duplicate.

What remains a problem

  • The order does not say how the electronic decision actually reaches the pensioner, through which channel and in what format, so the practical method of communication is left to each territorial pension house.
  • Article 2 keeps the rule of two counterparts with the name of the head of the institution written in full, a wording designed for paper, alongside the new Article 5 on the electronic seal, without the text explaining how the two fit together.
  • For pensioners without internet access, the practical benefit of the electronic document is limited, and the order provides no support measure for them.
  • This is the second change of forms in less than two years, which complicates the archive work of the territorial pension houses and the checking of an old decision against a new one.

Practical advice

  1. If you receive a pension decision in electronic form, keep the original file, not just a printout of it. The qualified electronic seal exists only in the file; on a page printed at home it can no longer be verified.
  2. Check in the decision the date from which the entitlements were established and the date on which payment begins. These are two separate entries, at letters B and C, and they do not always coincide.
  3. If you disagree with the decision, you have 45 days from communication to challenge it before the competent court. The time limit runs from communication, not from the date of issue.
  4. If you have received a decision granting an international pension application and you change your mind, you can ask for it to be annulled within 30 days of communication. This is a time limit separate from the one for challenging the decision.
  5. Read letter D and the annex with the contribution period, not just the final amount. That is where the years recognised in each category can be seen, and an error in classifying a period as normal conditions instead of difficult conditions changes the result.
  6. If you have periods worked in another country, check that you have received an international pension form, not an ordinary one. There are four distinct models, and using the wrong one can conceal the contribution period completed abroad.
  7. Do not throw away decisions received on the old forms. They remain valid, and the repeal concerns only the model used from now on for new decisions.

Frequently asked questions

Does this order make my pension go down or up?
No. The order approves the model forms on which decisions are issued, not the way the pension is calculated. Amounts continue to be established under Law no. 360/2023 and its implementing rules.
What is a qualified electronic seal and how does it differ from a signature?
An electronic signature belongs to a person, a seal belongs to an institution. Under Article 5 of the order and Article 4(2) of Law no. 214/2024, applying the seal attests to the integrity of the content and to the origin of the decision, and the electronic document thus issued is treated as an authentic instrument.
Is an old decision, received in 2025, still valid?
Yes. The repeal of Order no. 1.579/2024 concerns the model form used for decisions issued from now on. Individual acts already communicated keep their effects.
How long do I have to challenge a pension decision?
45 days from communication, before the competent court. The time limit is written on the form itself and is the same as in the 2024 order.
Where can I find the forms themselves?
Annexes nos. 1-13 were published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 684 bis of 19 August 2026, pages 4-36. The order approving them is in issue no. 684 of the same day, pages 15-16.
How many types of decision are there?
Thirteen: four for granting a pension in the domestic system, four for international pensions, plus suspension, termination, annulment, resumption of payment and recovery of amounts unduly received.
Who signs the decision?
The executive director of the territorial pension house or, on the basis of a delegation of powers approved by the President of the National House of Public Pensions, the deputy executive director of the Benefits Determination and Payment Directorate or the head of the local pension house. The name appears written in full on both counterparts.

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. 684 of 19 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 880 KB the act starts on page 15

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The other editions cited: nr. 684 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.