Public administration reform
The governing coalition in Bucharest has reached an agreement on the public administration reform.
Mihai Pelin, 12.11.2025, 13:50
President Nicuşor Dan discussed, in Bucharest, with the leaders of the governing coalition (PSD+PNL+UDMR+USR) about the reform projects regarding the pensions of magistrates, the administration, and the budget projection for next year, when the deficit restrictions are even stricter. There is an agreement regarding the reduction of salary expenses in the administration, both in the local and central administration, announced the Minister of Local Development, Cseke Atila. According to him, in 2026, personnel expenses will be reduced by 10% compared to this year in the central public administration. In the local administration, the possibility of reducing existing positions by 30% in all administrative-territorial units was agreed, with a brake of 20% maximum occupied positions.
This means an effective reduction of 10% of occupied positions nationwide and, as an alternative, for 2026, where solutions are found at the local level, personnel expenses should be reduced, explained Cseke Atila. In this way, not all administrative-territorial units will reduce occupied positions, some will only eliminate vacant positions, because their organizational chart is not fully occupied. The minister also said that savings of 1.7 billion lei (approx. 340 million Euros) will be made through the reform of local administration. Also, according to some political sources, the governing coalition has also established the setting up of three working groups. One refers to the reform of the national forest company Romsilva, where directorates will be abolished and only 12 will remain. The second group refers to the reduction of the number of parliamentarians, and the third one will analyze the economic recovery plan proposed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
On the other hand, the Coalition leaders must also resolve the reform of the magistrates’ system, in the context in which the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) rejected the project that modifies their retirement conditions. The law was declared unconstitutional due to the fact that the executive did not wait for the opinion of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM). Romania’s president declared himself optimistic and said that a solution would be found regarding this issue, because, if the law is not adopted, Romania risks losing 231 million Euros from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). He explained that the issue of special pensions is rather an administrative one.
Nicuşor Dan (TRACK): “We have an administrative problem in that, through a political decision many years ago, first pensions were higher than salaries, but now they are equal to salaries, which is absolutely unnatural, that is why there is agreement in society that this problem must be corrected, no one says that we should not correct this problem. The collateral problem is that this has become a subject of political campaign and, indeed, for magistrates, they have become a kind of ‘usual culprits’ and this is not normal.”
The deadline for adopting the law is the end of November, and this must also include any possible challenges in court. (LS)
