In brief

  • Public social service providers escape the hiring freeze: they may fill vacant and temporarily vacant posts by competition or examination, within the approved budget.
  • Purchases under four social programmes financed from the state budget are unblocked as well, for day centres, residential centres, sheltered housing and services for older people.
  • The second exception covers the hire of cars for summits and official visits by foreign delegations to Romania, as well as for Romanian delegations travelling abroad.
Act: Law no. 142/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 588 of 20 July 2026
In force from: 23 July 2026

Day centres, residential centres and the other public social services can once again advertise posts for competition, without waiting for a derogation from the Government. Law no. 142/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 588 of 20 July 2026, approves Government Emergency Ordinance no. 34/2023, the austerity ordinance of May 2023, and adds two exceptions to it. This is the second law this summer to open a gap in the public sector hiring freeze, after the one that allowed state-owned companies with overdue invoices to hire again.

The ordinance approved by this law contains two prohibitions that have become notorious across the administration. The first, in Article III, bars public authorities and institutions from buying, leasing or hiring cars, furniture and office equipment for fitting out their offices, their needs being met only through redistribution from other institutions. The second, in Article IV, suspends the filling by competition or examination of vacant and temporarily vacant posts, with the exception of single posts.

The approving law abolishes neither of the two prohibitions. It leaves them standing and introduces, alongside the exceptions that already existed, two new categories of situation that fall outside them. Both exceptions operate, the text says, from the date on which the approving law enters into force, that is from 23 July 2026.

What it changes in practice

The first effect, and the one that matters most to the public, is the unblocking of recruitment in public social services. The new paragraph (11) of Article IV lifts the suspension for the public social service providers referred to in Social Assistance Law no. 292/2011. That category covers the public social assistance services attached to town halls and county councils, the general directorates for social assistance and child protection, and the units under their authority: day centres, residential centres, service complexes, home care services.

The condition attached by the law is strictly budgetary. Posts may be filled „within the approved budget”, which means the exception comes with no extra money. A centre that has no salary funds for a new post cannot advertise it simply because the law now allows it to.

The second effect concerns purchases. The new paragraph (31) of Article III lifts the ban on purchases made under projects financed through four government decisions: Government Decision no. 973/2012, on investment and major repairs at day and residential centres, Government Decision no. 798/2016, the programme for the deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities, Government Decision no. 193/2018, the programme for the transition of young people with disabilities from child protection to adult protection, and Government Decision no. 435/2022, the programmes for developing social services for older people.

The practical effect here is that a centre newly built or renovated under one of these programmes can also be furnished from the same project. Until now the restriction produced an absurd result: the building went up with public money, but the beds, the wardrobes and the desks had to be brought in by redistribution from other institutions.

The third effect is the protocol one. The hire of cars for organising summits and official and state visits by foreign delegations to Romania falls outside the ban, as does the local hire of cars for trips by Romanian official delegations abroad. The exception concerns institutions with protocol duties, first of all the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Administration.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Before this law, Article III paragraph (3) of the ordinance contained four exceptions to the purchasing ban: newly established institutions, in their first year of operation; investment objectives commissioned after the ordinance entered into force; purchases under projects financed from non-reimbursable external funds and from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan; and cars bought under the programmes financed from the Environment Fund, among them the National Car Fleet Renewal Programme.

The logic of the time is easy to read: the exemptions went to projects with European financing, not to those paid for from the state budget. Yet the social programmes now listed are financed precisely from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of Labour. Law no. 142/2026 closes that difference in treatment.

On recruitment, the change is one of method, not only of substance. Until now, a vacant post in a public social service could be filled only through the exceptions already set out in the ordinance or through a memorandum approved by the Government, a procedure that took time and carried no guarantee. From 23 July 2026, public social service providers have an exception of their own, written directly into the law.

What does not change is the general architecture. The ban on buying cars and office furniture remains, as does the suspension of competitions for the rest of the public apparatus. The law postpones nothing and extends nothing, it merely adds to the list of exempted situations.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • Public social services, where the staff shortage is felt directly in the quality of care, can hold competitions again without asking for a derogation.
  • It puts an end to the situation in which a centre built with public money could not be equipped from the same project.
  • It places social programmes financed from the state budget on the same footing as projects financed from European funds, which were already exempt.
  • The recruitment exception is conditional on staying within the approved budget, so it creates no new uncovered expenditure.
  • It makes future one-off memorandums unnecessary for every social assistance directorate that needed staff.

What remains a problem

  • The exception comes with no financing. A public provider with no salary funds available is left exactly where it was.
  • The text refers to the public social service providers covered by Law no. 292/2011, a broad formulation that will call for clarification in practice in the case of mixed structures.
  • The exception for hiring protocol cars, sitting in the same text as the unblocking of social services, is hard to justify publicly in an austerity ordinance.
  • The ordinance entered into force in May 2023 and approval comes more than three years later, a period in which institutions worked under an incomplete text.
  • The rest of the public apparatus remains under the ban on filling vacant posts, so the pressure on staffing shifts rather than disappears.

Practical advice

  1. If you are a social assistance directorate or a centre under a town hall or a county council, check first whether you fall within the definition of a public social service provider in Law no. 292/2011. That is where it is decided whether the exception applies to you.
  2. Before publishing the competition notice, obtain written confirmation from the finance department that the post is covered by the approved budget. The law expressly makes the filling of the post conditional on staying within that budget.
  3. In the justification report, cite Article IV paragraph (11) of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 34/2023, as supplemented by Law no. 142/2026, and not only the new law. The operative basis remains the text of the ordinance.
  4. For purchases, the exception works only if the project is financed through one of the four government decisions listed. Check the financing contract to see which is the legal basis, because social programmes draw on different sources.
  5. If your project has European financing or financing from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, you were already exempt back in 2023. You do not need the new text.
  6. Competitions already cancelled or postponed because of the suspension can be resumed after 23 July 2026, but the procedure starts again from the beginning, with a fresh notice.
  7. Institutions organising official visits must document the link between the car hire and the protocol event, because the exception is limited to that purpose.

Frequently asked questions

Is hiring in the public sector being unblocked?
Not in general. It is unblocked only for the public social service providers referred to in Social Assistance Law no. 292/2011. For the other public institutions, the suspension on filling vacant posts remains in force.
From when do the exceptions apply?
From the date on which the approving law enters into force, that is from 23 July 2026, three days after publication in the Official Gazette of Romania.
Can a day centre hire with no money in its budget?
No. The law says posts may be filled within the approved budget, so the exception brings no additional financing.
What happens to temporarily vacant posts?
The text of Article IV paragraph (1) refers both to vacant posts and to temporarily vacant ones, and the new exception points back to the same paragraph, so it covers both.
Which purchases are unblocked, exactly?
Those made under projects financed through Government Decisions no. 973/2012, no. 798/2016, no. 193/2018 and no. 435/2022, that is the programmes for day and residential centres, the deinstitutionalisation of persons with disabilities, the transition of young people with disabilities and services for older people.
Can public institutions buy cars again?
No. The new exception concerns only the hire of cars for summits and official visits, plus trips by Romanian delegations abroad. The general purchasing ban remains.
Why did approval of the ordinance take three years?
Emergency ordinances produce effects from publication, and Parliament approves them later, by law. In this case the ordinance was published in May 2023 and the approving law in July 2026. The measures were in operation throughout that period.

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 2

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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.