In brief

  • The Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests is left with a maximum of 511 posts, 20 fewer than the 531 in the previous establishment, and the organisation chart and the list of subordinate institutions are replaced in full.
  • The order saying who stays and in which post can be signed at the earliest on 7 October 2026, because the decision requires a period „of at least 30 days”. There is no final deadline in the text.
  • The Legislative Council gave a negative opinion on 2 September 2026, on the ground that a government dismissed by a motion of censure cannot carry out administrative reform. The Government adopted the decision the next day.
Act: Government Decision no. 698/2026 amending Government Decision no. 43/2020 on the organisation and operation of the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 755 of 7 September 2026
In force from: 7 September 2026, the date of publication

The Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests is being reorganised and is left with no more than 511 posts, against the 531 it had. Government Decision no. 698/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 755 of 7 September 2026, changes three things in the ministry’s basic act: the address of its headquarters, the maximum number of posts and the two annexes, that is the organisation chart and the list of the institutions the ministry has under its subordination, under its authority or under its coordination. That list still includes, among others, the National Environmental Guard, the Environment Fund Administration and the Romsilva National Forest Administration.

The decision has only two articles. The first says what changes in Government Decision no. 43/2020, the act of 28 January 2020 describing what the ministry does and how it is built inside. The second says how the move to the new establishment is made: by order of the minister, „within the time limits and under the procedure applicable to each category of staff”, but not earlier than 30 days from entry into force.

The figure of 511 appears in two places and is the same in both: in the new text of Article 9(2) and in the corner of the organisation chart published in facsimile, that is photographed from the original document rather than typeset again. The chart shows one minister, three secretaries of state, one secretary general and two deputy secretaries general, and below them seven general directorates, five directorates, an internal control service and four small compartments, among them the Public Policy Unit and Corporate Governance, both newly created.

The second annex says that the institutions financed entirely from the state budget and subordinated to the ministry have 3,912 posts between them: the National Environmental Guard 942, the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration 127, the National Forestry Guard together with the institutions subordinated to it 842, and the National Agency for Environment and Protected Areas 2,001. The total adds up exactly.

The adoption has a context that is not visible from the text. Parliament withdrew its confidence from the Government led by Ilie Bolojan on 5 May 2026, and since then the Executive has been working as a caretaker government. On 2 September 2026, the Legislative Council issued negative opinion no. 786, taking the view that abolishing some directorates, setting up others and cutting posts go beyond the „acts necessary for the administration of public affairs”, the only ones permitted to a dismissed government. The Government adopted the decision on 3 September 2026. The opinion of the Legislative Council is advisory, so the absence of a favourable one does not block adoption.

The same ministry is given, by Law no. 185/2026, 60 days to move the boundary of the protected natural areas that hydropower developments started before 2007 may leave.

What it changes in practice

From 7 September 2026, the ministry’s approved staffing establishment is 511 posts. That does not mean anyone leaves on that day. The decision approves the ceiling and the design of the structure, while moving people into the new boxes is done separately, by an order of the Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests, which does not yet exist.

For an employee of the ministry, the calendar has three steps and only the first has a certain date. The new structure is in force from 7 September 2026. The placement order can come at the earliest on 7 October 2026, because the act prohibits its issue earlier than 30 days. And a civil servant whose post disappears receives, under the Administrative Code, 30 calendar days’ notice before being released from office, so the earliest day on which they could be left without a post is around 6 November 2026. None of these steps has a maximum deadline.

The Administrative Code adds two further consequences that the decision does not repeat but that apply automatically. A public institution may be reorganised at most once in any six consecutive months, unless a change in the law requires it. And where a reorganisation cuts posts, the institution may not set up posts similar to those abolished for one year from the reorganisation. In practice, the ministry blocks its own establishment until the autumn of 2027 for the posts cut now.

For anyone sending an application, a complaint or a file to the ministry, no procedure changes. What changes is only who, inside, receives the case. The General Directorate for the Management of Environmental Programmes and Investments takes over the area of funds and investments, and communication with the public now sits in a directorate that also carries digitalisation in its name. During the transition, between the placement order and the end of the notice periods, delays are predictable, because the same people both handle the cases and carry out the move.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The maximum number of posts falls from 531 to 511. According to the Government’s press release of 3 September 2026, the reduction is made up of 4 posts in the offices of the dignitaries, 3 contractual posts, 4 management positions and 10 execution posts corresponding to civil service positions, minus one newly created management position. Added together, the four reductions come to 21, and with the new position added back the result is exactly minus 20. This is the only public breakdown of the figure, because the decision does not contain one.

The headquarters moves by two numbers on the same street. The text on the legislative portal gave Bulevardul Libertății no. 12, sector 5, while the new Article 2 says no. 14, with the mention „and/or in other secondary premises”, which was already there.

The organisation chart is not merely adjusted, it is replaced. According to the opinion of the Legislative Council, the General Directorate for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the Directorate for Strategies, Environmental Policies and European Funds Management, the Programming Directorate and the Project Monitoring Directorate disappear. In their place come the General Directorate for the Management of Environmental Programmes and Investments, with two directorates under it, plus two new compartments, the Public Policy Unit and Corporate Governance. In other words, the block that dealt with European money and with the recovery plan is gathered into a single general directorate.

The second annex also changes its content, but more in order to catch up with reality. The list now mentions the National Agency for Environment and Protected Areas, the institution created in 2025 by merging the environment agency with the one for protected natural areas, and the National Forestry Guard, in place of the former separate forestry guards. These are institutions that already existed under those names but that the ministry’s organisation act had not recorded.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The organisation chart is published in full, in facsimile, with every box visible, not described in words. Anyone can see how many general directorates exist and to whom they answer.
  • The figures add up. The four subordinate institutions total exactly 3,912 posts, and the ceiling of 511 appears identically in the text and in the chart, with no discrepancies.
  • The annex with the subordinate institutions is brought up to date with the 2025 mergers, so the ministry’s organisation act no longer refers to agencies that have since changed their names and structure.
  • The area of European funds and investments, scattered until now across four structures, comes under a single general directorate, which gives a clear answer to the question of who coordinates environmental money.

What remains a problem

  • The time limit in Article II has only a minimum threshold, not a final date. Employees cannot know from the act when the move ends, and the ministry is never late, however long it takes.
  • The decision does not republish Government Decision no. 43/2020 in consolidated form, even though it changes its headquarters, its number of posts and both annexes. Anyone wanting the full text has to gather the amendments made since 2020 for themselves.
  • The act was adopted by a government dismissed by a motion of censure on 5 May 2026, with a negative opinion from the Legislative Council. The question of lawfulness remains open and may reach the courts along with the first challenges to the placement orders.
  • The chart shows three secretaries of state but attaches no structure to them. All the directorates hang from the minister and the secretary general, so the design does not say who is actually responsible for water, for forests or for waste.
  • Neither the decision nor the chart says how many posts each directorate has. The 511 appear as a single number, so it cannot be checked from the act where the cuts fell.

Practical advice

  1. If you work in the ministry, note 7 October 2026. Before that date the placement order cannot lawfully be issued, so any rumour about final lists before October has no basis in the decision.
  2. Ask human resources, in writing, for the staffing table approved after the placement order. The published chart shows the boxes, not the posts inside them, and it is the posts that matter for you.
  3. If your post is cut, check whether an examination was organised before the notice was given. The Administrative Code requires an examination where several civil servants compete for the same remaining posts, and the examination is held before the notice, not after.
  4. During the notice period, ask the institution for the list of corresponding vacant posts. This is an obligation of the employer, not a favour, and if there are none within the ministry, the institution has to request the list from the National Agency of Civil Servants.
  5. If you have a file pending with the ministry, send a short request in September or October asking for confirmation of the compartment handling it. In moves, files go astray at handover, not at registration.
  6. If you write to the ministry on paper, use the new address, Bulevardul Libertății no. 14, sector 5, Bucharest, even though the number 12 still appears on websites.
  7. For a court challenge against a placement order, keep negative opinion no. 786 of 2 September 2026 of the Legislative Council as well. It does not annul the decision, but it is an official document questioning the Government’s power to adopt it.

Frequently asked questions

From when does the new organisation chart apply?
From 7 September 2026, the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania. Government decisions enter into force on publication unless they provide a later date, and this one does not.
How many posts does the ministry have now?
No more than 511, under the new Article 9(2). It is a maximum ceiling, so the number of posts actually filled may be lower.
Who leaves the ministry and when will that be known?
The decision names nobody. The allocation of posts is made by order of the minister, which can be issued at the earliest on 7 October 2026. The act does not provide a date by which the order must be issued.
What does „reproduced in facsimile” mean for the organisation chart?
That the Official Gazette of Romania printed the annex as an image of the original document, rather than typesetting it again. This is done for charts, tables and maps, so that the drawing is not spoiled in print.
Does anything change for someone filing an application or a complaint with the ministry?
The procedure does not change. What changes is only the internal compartment that takes the case, especially for files concerning European funds and environmental investments, which now go to a single general directorate.
What happens to Romsilva, Apele Române and the Environment Fund Administration?
They remain in the second annex, in the same relations with the ministry: Romsilva and the National Meteorological Administration under its authority, the Environment Fund Administration and the National Water Administration „Apele Române” under its coordination. Their internal organisation is established by their own acts, which this decision does not touch.
Do the 3,912 posts in the annex form part of the 511?
No. These are two different things. The 511 are the posts of the ministry’s own apparatus, while the 3,912 belong to the four subordinate institutions financed entirely from the state budget: the National Environmental Guard, the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration, the National Forestry Guard and the National Agency for Environment and Protected Areas.
Why did the Legislative Council give a negative opinion?
Because the Government was dismissed by a motion of censure on 5 May 2026, and a caretaker government may, under the Constitution, carry out only the acts necessary for the administration of public affairs. The Council took the view that abolishing and creating directorates, together with cutting posts, amounts to administrative reform, not day-to-day administration.
Does the negative opinion stop the decision?
No. The opinion of the Legislative Council is advisory, and the Government may adopt the act even with a negative opinion, as it did on 3 September 2026. The question can be raised later in court, normally by someone directly affected by an order issued on the basis of the decision.
Can the ministry revisit the reorganisation in a few months?
Hardly. The Administrative Code allows a public institution to be reorganised at most once in any six consecutive months, unless a change in the law requires it. In addition, the posts abolished now cannot be re-established in a similar form for one year.

Errors and inconsistencies in the published text

  • Article II, the placement deadline has a minimum threshold but no final date. The text requires the placement to be made „within a period of at least 30 days from the date of entry into force of this decision”. In legislative drafting, a time limit is given as the date by which something must be done, not as the date before which it cannot be done. From the published wording it is impossible to establish when the placement must be completed, so it can never be said that the ministry is late. Moreover, the first half of the same sentence refers to „the time limits and the procedure applicable to each category of staff”, and those are maximum periods, for example the 30 calendar days’ notice for civil servants. A reader acting in good faith can reach two opposite conclusions: either it is a compulsory waiting period, which blocks any notification before 7 October 2026, or it is a drafting slip in place of „at most”, in which case 7 October 2026 would be the deadline by which the ministry has to have finished. The practical consequences are the reverse of each other for every employee concerned.

Editorial analysis

The reorganisation is presented as an efficiency measure, but the proportions say otherwise. The ministry and the four subordinate institutions financed from the state budget have 4,423 posts between them, that is 511 plus 3,912. The 20 posts cut represent 0.45% of that total and 3.8% of the ministry’s establishment. The ratio between the central apparatus and the network it commands is untouched: for every post in the ministry there are almost eight in the subordinate institutions. A reform that stops at the ministry’s door and does not touch the National Environmental Guard, the National Forestry Guard or the environment agency, that is precisely the places where field inspection is carried out, changes the organisation chart, not the way things work.

The second observation comes from the very legal basis invoked in the preamble. The decision rests on Article 391(3) of the Administrative Code, which sets the thresholds for establishing structures: a minimum of 15 execution posts for a directorate and a minimum of 25 for a general directorate. The newly created structure, the General Directorate for the Management of Environmental Programmes and Investments, has two directorates under it, so it cannot lawfully operate with fewer than 30 execution posts, 15 for each directorate. In the same movement, the reorganisation removes 10 execution posts from the establishment. The 30 posts of the new structure do not come from nowhere, but from moving people out of the abolished directorates, which means that the reorganisation is, in large part, a redrawing of the same team. Applying the same threshold to all the published boxes, the seven general directorates, the five directorates and the control service require at least 257 execution posts between them, that is more than half of the 511 approved, before counting the compartments, the dignitaries and any services and offices inside the directorates, which the chart does not show.

The third problem is one of timing and relates to the erratum above. The new structure is in force from 7 September 2026, but the people are not yet in it, and the order that places them cannot come earlier than 7 October 2026 and has no final deadline. This creates a period in which the approved chart and the real establishment do not overlap, and its length is decided by the ministry alone. The ratio is telling: the addressee is subject to a firm 30-day wait, while the administration sets itself no deadline at all for its own decision.

On top of all this sits negative opinion no. 786 of 2 September 2026. The Executive has been operating as a caretaker government for 125 days as at the date of publication, counting from the motion of censure of 5 May 2026. The draft had been put out for public consultation in March 2026, by a government with full powers, and was adopted in September by one without them. Adoption over a negative opinion, one day after it was given, is not unlawful, because the opinion is advisory, but it leaves a real vulnerability: the first civil servant released from office on the basis of this chart has to hand an official document saying that the act goes beyond what a dismissed government may do.

What should be changed

  • Replacing „at least” with a final deadline in Article II. A corrigendum in the Official Gazette of Romania saying „within no more than 60 days” would give employees a date by which they know where they stand and would make delay by the administration verifiable.
  • Republication of Government Decision no. 43/2020 in consolidated form. The basic act has been amended several times since 2020, and now its headquarters, its number of posts and both its annexes are being changed. Without republication, neither the employee nor the citizen has a single text to read.
  • Publication of the staffing table by directorate, together with the placement order. The chart shows the boxes, not the posts inside them. With the 511 posts allocated across the structures, anyone could check whether the cuts fell on management or on execution and whether the thresholds in Article 391 are observed.
  • Expressly attaching the directorates to the secretaries of state. The current chart leaves the three posts of secretary of state with no structure hanging from them. Setting out the areas they coordinate would tell the citizen whom to address for water, for forests or for waste.
  • A public announcement by the ministry on the date the placement order is issued. A simple press release with the number and the date of the order would close the period of uncertainty and would start the notice clock in the open, not only inside the institution.

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. 755 of 7 September 2026 16 pages PDF, 125 KB the act starts on page 4

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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.