Talks on the reform of the local public administration

The ruling coalition is yet to reach an agreement with respect to the final form of the local administration reform.

Daniela Budu, 17.10.2025, 14:00

After more than two months of talks and several meetings postponed, the reform of the local administration is still in a deadlock. The ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania is yet to reach an agreement on the final form of the reform of the local administration and, implicitly, the number of public servants from town halls and county councils to be made redundant.

Prime minister Ilie Bolojan is in favour of effectively sacking around 13,000 budget employees, while the Social Democratic Party says mayors and ministers should decide the ways to reduce spending, whether it’s dismissals, salary cuts or cutting bonuses. At a meeting this week, the Social Democrats also presented their own economic reform package and wanted it to be adopted together with the administrative reform.

In another move, the government has decided to postpone for next week the amendments to Emergency Order no. 52 that prevents mayors to commit to excessive spending on repairs and purchases towards the end of the year. The authorities said as early as last week that they would amend the order, after a number of mayors from around the country threatened to block the activity of town halls.

In a press conference, development minister Cseke Attila said it’s essential for the government and the ruling coalition to make a decision on the reform of the local public administration as soon as possible and warned that prolonging talks affects the political process and local efficiency. He said his party, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, is in favour of a differentiated approach from one locality to another, because it is not fair for efficient town halls to also have to make spending cuts. He added that no redundancy is needed in around 700 territorial administrative units. Cseke Attila:

“I don’t think it’s fair to apply the same measure to everyone, as long as there are public authorities, town halls, mayors, if you like, who have managed public money efficiently, where the organisation chart is not full and where we should not make significant reductions. We have proposed the coalition to apply a percentage of 30%, which in the end results in a reduction of occupied posts of 10.2%”.

Cseke Attila also proposed a different way of ranking localities that no longer correspond to current population criteria. Therefore, a number of localities would become cities, as they number more than 40,000 inhabitants. Moreover, he added, if these proposals are accepted, 45 communes around the country will become towns, because they number over 10,000 inhabitants.