On August 19, the European Commission sent a point of view to the Romanian government regarding the draft Wage Law for the budgetary sector, requesting clarifications on the budgetary sources for the RON 12 billion or higher increase in the payroll next year, as announced by interim prime minister Ilie Bolojan. Initially, Romania set a RON 8 billion increase in the payroll envelope from RON 166 billion this year.
The European Commission now requires more details about the financing of the RON 12 billion increase, corresponding to a 7% indexation justified by inflation.
Romania’s economic outlook for this year and the coming years has deteriorated, and the country’s public debt exceeded 60% of GDP for the first time at the end of March 2026, as confirmed by Eurostat, which put additional pressure on the public budget resources that may explain EC’s stricter position.
Approving a new Wage Law for the budgetary sector is a milestone under Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) with a EUR 771 million grant attached.
The logic of the new law would be setting transparent, fair, and comparable wages across the entire budgetary sector that would replace the complicated system of often politically motivated bonuses developed over decades. The government promised that no wage would decrease, but in practice the capping of bonuses would result in lower incomes for those currently earning more than envisaged under the new Wage Law – which created tensions.
Even with an envelope RON 12 billion larger than that this year, the implementation of the new Wage Law next year would prompt social tensions that prevent the broad political support.
Political sources told Euronews Romania that the interim minister of labour, Dragoș Pîslaru, along with the minister of education, Mihai Dimian, and the minister of finance, Alexandru Nazare, and other representatives from the Ministry of Finance had discussions with European Commission officials, after the final version of the Wage Law was sent to Brussels on August 18.
According to Euronews Romania, the latest attempts by officials in Bucharest were rejected by the European Commission. The EU executive stressed that if it approves the new Wage Law, Romania must remain within the RON 12.1 billion envelope. Romania cannot increase the budgetary impact, even if there have been discussions about a phased entry into force of the law.
Acting prime minister Ilie Bolojan said that the European Commission still has doubts about how the Romanian government will finance this increase, according to Profit.ro.
“As you know, [labour minister Dragos] Pislaru took over a project that [former Social Democrat minister Florin] Manole left. Based on this project, he had discussions with the unions and found that the proposal that was made did not reach an agreement with the unions. Therefore, the total amount, upon discussions with the social partners, was gradually increased and reached a certain value, let’s say over RON 12 billion as an increase in the envelope. Although initially the increase was set at RON 8 billion. In this situation, to check whether the new law meets the milestone’s requirements, this draft law was sent to the European Commission experts,” explained PM Bolojan.
According to him, the European Commission’s point of view was communicated to the government on August 19. “A point of view came today from the Commission regarding these observations, and based on this point of view, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labour worked through their experts to re-draw the proposal.”
iulian@romania-insider.com
(Photo source: Alexandru Marinescu/Dreamstime.com)
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