In brief
- The seagoing service required for the certificate of competency as chief mate and as second engineer officer falls from 24 months to a minimum of 12 months within the last 5 years.
- The amendment touches four entries in Annex no. 1 to Order of the minister of transport no. 1.252/2014, two on the deck side and two on the engine side. Those affected are the Romanian maritime officers about to obtain these certificates, the maritime education and training institutions and the Romanian Naval Authority, which issues the certificates.
- Certificates issued so far remain valid until they expire, and applications under way are decided under the new rule.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial), Part I, no. 834 of 1 October 2026, page 4
In force from: 4 October 2026
From 4 October 2026, a Romanian officer who wants the certificate of competency as chief mate or as second engineer officer needs half the time at sea that was required until now: 12 months, not 24. Order of the interim minister of transport and infrastructure no. 924/2026 was published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 834 of 1 October 2026 and amends Annex no. 1 to Order of the minister of transport no. 1.252/2014, the act laying down the minimum criteria for the training and further training of Romanian maritime seafarers. It comes from the same ministry which, two numbers below, also approved the new implementing rules for the rovinietă, the charge for using the national road network, applicable from 1 October 2026.
The order has five articles and a single idea. In four places in Annex no. 1, point 2.2 is rewritten, that is precisely the service condition. The entries touched are: Chapter II, Regulation II/2, sentence 1, chief mate on seagoing ships of 3,000 gross tonnage or more; the same chapter and the same regulation, sentence 3, chief mate on ships of between 500 and 3,000 gross tonnage; Chapter III, Regulation III/2, sentence 1, second engineer officer on ships with main propulsion machinery of 3,000 kW or more; Chapter III, Regulation III/3, sentence 1, second engineer officer on ships with main propulsion machinery of between 750 kW and 3,000 kW.
The certificate of competency is the document showing what position a seafarer may hold on board a seagoing ship. It is issued by the Romanian Naval Authority, on the basis of the criteria in Order no. 1.252/2014, and those criteria transpose into Romanian law the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, concluded on 7 July 1978, to which Romania acceded by Law no. 107/1992, known in the profession as the STCW Convention.
What it changes in practice
The first effect is the length. In all four entries, the new point 2.2 requires approved seagoing service in the relevant capacity, as a deck officer or as an engineer officer, of a minimum of 12 months within the last 5 years. Until 4 October 2026 a minimum of 24 months was required, of which at least 12 within the last 5 years. For an officer who sails steadily, the difference is about a year of career.
The second effect is what does not change. The rest of the condition stays in place: the candidate must have completed with a diploma an approved education and training programme at a maritime education and training institution and have acquired the competences set out in column 1 of the relevant tables in section A-II/2 of the STCW Code for the deck side, and in sections A-III/2 and A-III/3 for the engine side. Point 2.2 ends with „și”, and, so the conditions before and after it continue to add up. The level of competence required does not fall; what falls is only the minimum time spent on board.
The third effect concerns existing certificates. Under Article II, certificates issued before the entry into force keep their validity until the date of expiry, on the terms on which they were issued. No one has to redo anything.
The fourth effect is the most concrete for anyone with a file on the desk. Under Article III, applications pending on the date of entry into force are decided under the provisions of the new order. A candidate with 15 or 18 months of service, who until now did not meet the condition, meets it from 4 October 2026 without lodging a fresh application.
The fifth effect is one of calendar and of competence. By Article IV, the task of applying the order falls to the Romanian Naval Authority, while Article V sets the entry into force at 3 days from publication. The 3-day time limit is calculated in calendar days, starting with the date of publication, and expires at 24.00 on the third day, as provided in Article 12 of Law no. 24/2000 on legislative drafting rules. Publication took place on 1 October 2026, so the first day of application is 4 October 2026.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
Until this order, the Romanian criterion required seagoing service of a minimum of 24 months, of which at least 12 months within the last 5 years, both for the deck side and for the engine side. The new text keeps the 5-year window and gives up the 24 months. In practice, the quantity requirement disappears and the freshness requirement stays: the 12 months have to be recent.
The reason can be read in the preamble. The order relies on the STCW Convention of 7 July 1978, as subsequently amended, on the Seafarers’ Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Code, known in the profession as the STCW Code, and on Directive (EU) 2022/993 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2022 on the minimum level of training of seafarers, published in the Official Journal of the European Union, L series, no. 169 of 27 June 2022. The Directive takes the STCW Convention over into Union law without adding standards of its own. And Regulation II/2 of the Convention requires, for the chief mate on ships of 3,000 gross tonnage or more, approved service of at least 12 months as officer in charge of a navigational watch. Romania was therefore asking for double the international minimum, and from 4 October 2026 it asks for exactly the minimum.
The second thing that changes is the boundary between the entries brought into line and those left untouched. Regulations II/2, III/2 and III/3 each concern two positions: the second in command and, respectively, the master or the chief engineer officer. The order rewrites only the sentences for the second in command. The sentences for the master and for the chief engineer officer stay as they were, and the act does not show whether the same comparison with the international minimum was made for them too.
The third thing, by way of context: the order is signed by an interim minister, Radu-Dinel Miruță, on 30 September 2026, and bears the number 924.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- An officer who sails steadily can reach the position of second in command about a year earlier, without going through any further examinations.
- The Romanian requirement comes down to the level of the STCW Convention and of Directive (EU) 2022/993, so a Romanian seafarer no longer starts out with a harder condition than a colleague under another flag in the Union.
- The transitional regime is written down, not left to interpretation: Article II saves the certificates already issued, Article III sends pending applications to the new rule.
- The level of competence is untouched. The diploma from a maritime education and training institution and the competences in column 1 of the tables in the STCW Code remain compulsory conditions.
- Shipowners operating under the Romanian flag find qualified officers for the posts of second in command more quickly, in a market where the shortage of certificated staff is chronic.
What remains a problem
- Between publication and application there are 3 days. The Romanian Naval Authority and the training centres change their procedures and their forms with no preparation period at all.
- The 5-year window stays, even though the Convention does not tie the 12 months to any such limit. An officer with solid service, but older than 5 years, does not meet the condition.
- The order does not say from what moment the 5 years are counted: the date of the application, the date of the examination or the date on which the certificate is issued. The difference can take whole months in or out of the calculation.
- Only the positions of second in command are brought into line. If the sentences for the master and the chief engineer officer keep requirements above the international minimum, the bottleneck moves one step up instead of disappearing.
- Half the time on board means half the practical experience built up through repetition. Checking that experience falls entirely on the examination and on the training received at school.
Practical advice
- If you have between 12 and 24 months of service in the relevant capacity, lodge the application for certification from 4 October 2026 onwards. Before that date the requirement of 24 months still applies.
- If you already have an application lodged and undecided at the Romanian Naval Authority, do not withdraw it. Article III sends the decision to the new rule, with no further steps needed.
- Count the 12 months only from periods falling within the last 5 years. Older months do not enter the calculation, however many of them there may be.
- Ask the Romanian Naval Authority in writing how the moment from which the 5 years are counted is determined. A written answer protects you if the file is examined by a different person.
- Do not mistake the easing of the service requirement for an exemption from training. Without the diploma certifying completion of an approved education and training programme at a maritime education and training institution, the application is still refused.
- If you hold a certificate, do nothing. Article II keeps it valid until the date of expiry, on the terms on which it was issued.
Frequently asked questions
From when do the new requirements apply?
How much seagoing service is required now?
Which certificates are affected?
Does my current certificate stay valid?
What happens to an application lodged before 4 October 2026?
Why has the requirement been lowered?
Are school and examination still needed?
Editorial analysis
The order solves a real problem and solves it in three lines of text: Romania required 24 months at sea where the STCW Convention and Directive (EU) 2022/993 require 12, and the difference added no verifiable competence, only a year of waiting. What cannot be seen from reading the act is precisely that: the order rewrites point 2.2 without saying anywhere that the old figure was double the international minimum. Anyone who reads only the Official Gazette of Romania no. 834 of 1 October 2026 learns what is required from now on, not that for years more was required than was needed.
The second observation comes out of comparing the two time limits in the act. The seafarer is given a gain of 12 months, while the administration that has to apply the new rule is given 3 days. The same institution receives the task of applying the order, by Article IV, and the time limit, by Article V, at the same time. An order easing a condition does not need a transition period for the addressee, but it does need one for the counter, for the forms and for the internal instructions on calculating the service.
The third observation concerns what has been left out. The four entries amended are all sentences for the position of second in command. Regulations II/2, III/2 and III/3 also contain the sentences for the master and for the chief engineer officer, which are not touched. If the check against the international minimum was made only on the lower half of the promotion ladder, the practical effect of the order is spent in a single step: the officer becomes second in command a year earlier and then waits in the same place as before. The act says neither that the check was made nor that it was not.
There is also a question of calculation, inherited rather than created here: the 5-year window. The Convention requires 12 months of approved service, without tying them to any interval. The order ties them. For as long as the text does not say from what date the 5 years are counted, the freshness condition remains the one place where two identical files can receive different answers.
What should be changed
- The moment from which the 5 years run, written into the text. A single sentence saying whether the window is calculated from the date on which the application is registered, from the date of the examination or from the date on which the certificate is issued. Without it, the calculation is left to the person handling the file.
- The same check on the sentences for the master and the chief engineer officer. If the national requirement exceeds the minimum in the STCW Convention there as well, the amendment should be made in the same act, not in an order a year later. Otherwise the bottleneck moves instead of clearing.
- A public table of correspondence between the national criteria and the STCW regulations. For each position, the requirement in Annex no. 1 alongside the requirement in the Convention and in Directive (EU) 2022/993, marking the places where Romania asks for more. The candidate sees in advance where an extra condition sits, and the ministry sees what is left to align.
- An application instruction for the Romanian Naval Authority, published together with the order. It would cover exactly the three days in which the counter has to work under a new rule, with old forms.
- A fixed date of entry into force, instead of „3 days from publication”. Training centres and shipowners plan embarkations by the month, not by the day. A date written out expressly, even at 15 or 30 days, is easier to communicate than a time limit that everyone works out for himself.
- The possibility of a re-examination, on request, of recent refusals. Article III saves undecided applications, but says nothing about those refused shortly before, for want of the 24 months of service. A short period in which those candidates could ask for a review would close the only unfairness the transitional regime leaves behind.
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. 834 of 1 October 2026, page 4 16 pages PDF, 104 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.