Reform in the public sector

In Romania, all state-owned companies that are losing money will be restructured

Daniela Budu, 25.11.2025, 13:50

The National Committee for the Reform of State-Owned Companies has been reactivated, announced Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu, who coordinates the committee and presented on Monday the main areas on which the group will focus its activity. The National Recovery and Resilience Plan includes as milestones the elimination of interim management from all state-owned companies by the end of March and the restructuring of at least three such companies by the program’s final deadline of August 31, 2026.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu emphasized that beyond the commitments made through the NRRP, Romania needs to clean up, organize, and streamline these companies so that they truly serve the public and do not generate losses. Currently, there are over 1,500 state-owned companies in Romania, of which about 1,270 are subordinate to local authorities, and the rest are central companies. The biggest problems are at the central level, says the deputy prime minister, where 83 of these state-owned companies are recording losses of around 14 billion lei (2.8 billion euros).

According to Oana Gheorghiu, the reform of state-owned companies will begin with a pilot project involving 10 companies and is not aimed at making redundancies, but at making these state entities more efficient. The selection of the 10 companies will be made by the ministers of Energy and Transport.

Oana Gheorghiu: “We plan to start with 10 companies as a pilot project, in which we will test this workflow. These 10 companies have not yet been selected. We will finalize the list this week. We will have four companies from the energy sector and six from the transport sector. This reform does not aim to make redundancies. We are trying to make the Romanian state and state-owned companies more efficient, which will benefit all Romanian citizens, because the money lost in state-owned companies is lost from our common budget. Obviously, adjustments will be needed, and obviously there will be companies where thenumber of jobs will probably be reduced, but I don’t think this will be significant. And, if necessary, the Romanian state will have to take some compensatory measures, but for now it is premature to discuss this.”

The selection process takes into account not only the companies’ losses and debts, but also their strategic position on the market, Oana Gheorghiu also announced. By the end of the week, the Bucharest executive should also resolve the issue of interim management at 48 state-owned companies, so as not to miss the NRRP milestone that must be closed by March 31 next year. (MI)