In brief
- On 28 August the Prime Minister signed four decisions that empty four posts in central government: a Deputy Secretary General of the Government, a vice-president of a regulatory authority, a secretary general of the Permanent Electoral Authority and a state secretary at the Ministry of the Environment.
- Three of the four departures are at the holder’s own request, and the three requests were registered with the Prime Minister’s Office on the same day, 26 August 2026. The fourth, the only one not made on request, is also the only one immediately followed by the appointment of a successor.
- None of the four acts says who takes over the duties. At the Permanent Electoral Authority the post was already vacant and was merely being exercised on a temporary basis, so from 28 August it is left both vacant and unexercised.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 720 of 28 August 2026
In force from: 28 August 2026
In a single edition of the Official Gazette of Romania, central government records four departures and one single arrival. Prime Minister’s Decisions no. 287, no. 288, no. 289 and no. 290 of 2026, published on pages 5 and 6 of edition no. 720 of 28 August, remove four people from office. The only appointment of the same day, that of a state secretary at the Ministry of the Environment, appears on the following page and was dealt with separately, together with the other three Prime Minister’s decisions of the same day.
Removal from office is the act by which a person ceases to hold a public dignity post or a management post in the administration. It is done by decision of the Prime Minister, on the basis of Article 29 of the Administrative Code, countersigned by the Secretary General of the Government and published in the Official Gazette of Romania. Where the departure is asked for by the person concerned, the act carries the words „la cerere”, at their own request.
The third of the decisions is not a removal proper, but the ending of a temporary exercise of duties. This is the situation where a management post that has fallen free is not filled by competition but is given to someone to exercise provisionally, until it is actually filled. When that exercise ends, the post goes back to where it started. At the Permanent Electoral Authority, one of the institutions concerned, the government has meanwhile approved the list of documents that become state secrets.
What it changes in practice
The first effect concerns the Government’s own working apparatus. Through Decision no. 287/2026, Ms Cristina Trăilă is removed, at her own request, from the post of Deputy Secretary General of the Government, with the rank of state secretary. The effect does not occur on publication, but on 15 September 2026, that is 18 days later.
The second effect concerns the regulatory authority for mining and petroleum. Through Decision no. 288/2026, Mr Ionuț Sorin Banciu is removed, at his own request, from the post of vice-president of the National Regulatory Authority for Mining, Petroleum and the Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide, from 1 September 2026.
The third effect concerns the Permanent Electoral Authority. Through Decision no. 289/2026, the temporary exercise by Mr Vlaicu Dan of the vacant public post of secretary general of the authority ceases, at his own request. The effect occurs on the date the decision enters into force, that is from 28 August 2026.
The fourth effect concerns the Ministry of the Environment, Waters and Forests. Through Decision no. 290/2026, Mr Raul Pop is removed from the post of state secretary, likewise from the date of entry into force. It is the only one of the four that does not carry the words „la cerere”, at their own request.
The fifth effect is that the four departures take place at four different moments, spread over 18 days: two from 28 August itself, one from 1 September and one from 15 September. The four acts nevertheless bear the same date of signature and appear in the same edition.
The sixth effect has to do with the documents that set them off. Three are personal requests, all registered with the Prime Minister’s Office on 26 August 2026, under numbers 5/9.961 for Mr Banciu, 5/9.970 for Ms Trăilă and 5/9.971 for Mr Vlaicu, the last two consecutive. The fourth starts from Letter no. CM/70.225 of 4 August 2026 from the Ministry of the Environment, registered with the General Secretariat of the Government only on 27 August, under no. 20/25.604/DR.
The seventh effect is a legal one and does not show from the titles: the four acts, apparently identical, rest on four different constructions. Decision no. 287 relies on Article 20(2), Article 29 and Article 31(b) of the Administrative Code, Decision no. 288 on Article 29 and Article 31(a), plus Government Emergency Ordinance no. 81/2024 which set the authority up, Decision no. 290 on Article 29 and Article 31(d), while Decision no. 289 does not rely on Article 31 at all, but on Article 29 and on Article 101(11) of Law no. 208/2015 on the election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies and on the organisation and functioning of the Permanent Electoral Authority.
The eighth effect is what the acts do not contain. None of the four says who takes over the duties of the post left free, and none provides for any interim cover. The only one of the four posts to receive a holder on the same day is the one at the Ministry of the Environment, through the immediately following decision, no. 291/2026, which rests on the same letter from the ministry and on the same registration number with the General Secretariat.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
At the Permanent Electoral Authority, the situation gets one step worse. The post of secretary general was already vacant, that is, without a holder appointed by competition, but it was being exercised temporarily by someone. From 28 August it is not even exercised temporarily, and the decision points to no one else.
At the Government’s working apparatus and at the regulatory authority, the change is deferred: to 15 September and to 1 September respectively. Until then the holders stay in post, so both institutions have time to find a solution, even if no act published on 28 August announces one.
At the Ministry of the Environment, Waters and Forests, the change is complete and instantaneous. The removal and the appointment take effect at the same moment, when the two decisions published on facing pages enter into force, so the post is not left empty for a single day.
Nothing has changed in the organisation of any of the four institutions. All four decisions are personnel acts: they amend no regulation, they touch nobody’s powers and they change the structure of no authority.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- The three departures asked for by the holders are settled within two days of the request being registered, so nobody is kept in post against their will.
- Two of the decisions defer the effect, to 1 and to 15 September, which leaves the institutions a transition period.
- Each act states the document that set it off, with number and date, so the administrative trail can be verified in full.
- The legal bases are listed precisely for each type of post, including the special law in the case of the Permanent Electoral Authority.
- The words „la cerere”, at their own request, are set out explicitly wherever they apply, so a resignation can be told apart from a dismissal.
- The post at the Ministry of the Environment is not left unfilled for a single day, because the removal and the appointment take effect at the same time.
What remains a problem
- Three of the four posts are left without a holder, and no act published on the same day appoints a replacement.
- At the Permanent Electoral Authority the post is left both vacant and unexercised, with no interim cover written into the act.
- None of the four decisions says who takes over the duties in the interval up to a new appointment.
- The ministry’s letter that sets off the only departure not made on request sits for 23 days before being registered with the General Secretariat, with no explanation in the act.
- The removal decisions and the appointment decision for the same post do not cite each other, even though they start from the same document.
- The acts do not show the reason for the departure that is not on request, even though that is the only one of the four not explained by the holder’s own wish.
Practical advice
- If you have a file pending at the General Secretariat of the Government assigned to the Deputy Secretary General, bear in mind that the change takes place on 15 September 2026, not now. Until then your contact stays the same.
- If you have a file at the regulatory authority for mining and petroleum signed by the vice-president, check after 1 September who exercises the duties. The decision names no replacement.
- If you correspond with the Permanent Electoral Authority and need the signature of the secretary general, ask in writing to be told who exercises that function after 28 August.
- For business with the Ministry of the Environment, Waters and Forests, the new state secretary is appointed by the immediately following decision, no. 291/2026, with effect from 28 August as well.
- If you follow personnel changes in central government, the safest benchmark is the registration number of the triggering document, not the date of the decision. The requests in this batch are all from 26 August, even though the acts bear the date of the 28th.
- When you read a removal decision, look at the single article first. The date of effect differs from case to case: sometimes it is the date of entry into force, sometimes a future date fixed explicitly.
Frequently asked questions
How many posts are left free, and from when?
Which of the departures is not on request?
Who takes over the duties of the posts left free?
What does „temporary exercise of a vacant public post” mean?
Why do the four decisions have different dates of effect?
When were the requests lodged?
Editorial analysis
The four decisions are properly drawn up and raise no problems of application. Each states the document that set it off, with number and date, each lists its legal bases according to the type of post, and each fixes explicitly the moment from which it takes effect. They contain no contradictions, no reference is left without a target and no deadline excludes another, which is why this article has no errata section: the threshold requires a defect from which two different legal outcomes follow, and there is none here. What is missing from them is missing in the same way from every decision of this kind, and belongs to practice rather than to the drafting of these four acts.
What does not show when they are read one at a time appears when the four chains are measured, from the triggering document to the moment the departure actually takes place. Mr Vlaicu’s request, registered on 26 August, takes effect on the 28th: two days. Mr Banciu’s request, also from 26 August, takes effect on 1 September: six days. Ms Trăilă’s request, from the same day, takes effect on 15 September: 20 days. The letter from the Ministry of the Environment, dated 4 August, takes effect on 28 August: 24 days, of which 23 were consumed before the document was even registered with the General Secretariat. The three personal requests were registered on the day they were lodged; the only document that did not come from the holder sat for better than three weeks.
The second observation concerns the order on the page. The four removals take up pages 5 and 6, and page 7 carries the only appointment of the day. It fills exactly the post left free by the last of the four, the one that was not on request, and it rests on the same letter from the ministry, no. CM/70.225 of 4 August 2026, and on the same registration number with the General Secretariat, 20/25.604/DR. In other words, the only departure the holder did not ask for is also the only one prepared in advance with a successor. The other three, asked for by people, leave behind three posts that the day’s Official Gazette of Romania does not fill.
The third comes from the situation at the Permanent Electoral Authority, the only one this act makes worse. The post of secretary general was already vacant, and the provisional arrangement under which it was nevertheless being exercised now comes to an end. The result is a management post in an institution organised by Law no. 208/2015, the same law that governs the election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, left without a holder and without anyone to exercise its duties, in an act that says nothing about interim cover. It is not an error in the decision, which merely records a cessation asked for by a person, but a gap that nothing in the day’s edition fills.
What should be changed
- Stating, in the removal decision, who exercises the duties until a new appointment. One line would spare every petitioner and every institution the question of whom to address the next day.
- Publishing the appointment decision together with the removal decision, where the post has a successor ready. It was possible at the Ministry of the Environment, where both acts start from the same document, so it is possible elsewhere too.
- Mutual citation between the removal decision and the appointment decision for the same post. The two acts appear on facing pages and start from the same registration number, yet neither mentions the other.
- A deadline for registering the documents that set off personnel changes. The personal requests in this batch were registered on the day they were lodged, while a ministry’s letter waited 23 days.
- A rule on interim cover written into the law for management posts in autonomous authorities. Where the post was already vacant and merely being exercised temporarily, the ending of that exercise leaves the institution with no solution provided for at all.
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. 720 of 28 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 114 KB the act starts on page 5
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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.