State of Alert in Romania

On May 14, 2020, Government Emergency Ordinance no. 70/2020 regulating the measures to be applied as of May 15, 2020 in the context of the epidemiological situation determined by the spread of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 became effective. 

Labor Area Measures

• the granting of the technical unemployment allowances introduced by the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 30/2020 shall be prolonged also for the period from the end of the state of emergency to May 31, with the possibility to continue after such date only in the areas where restrictions shall be maintained;
• unemployment allowances so granted shall not be subject to enforcement during the period when granted, regardless of the budget from which they are paid;
• the provisions regarding the use of electronic mail as one of the means of communication for the request and granting of the social assistance, state social insurance and unemployment rights shall apply also after the end of the state of emergency, for a period of 30 days;
• the period of suspension of the employment relations during the state of emergency and during the state of alert shall be taken into account when establishing the contributory period of minimum 12 months in the last 24 months prior to the date of registration of the application for unemployment allowance;
• the period of the state of emergency and the period of the state of alert when the individual employment agreements are suspended, for which employers do not owe the work insurance contribution, represent a contributory period assimilated in the system of unemployment insurances;
• the granting of the rights related to leaves shall be prolonged until May 31, 2020 to the persons who, at the effective date of the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 70/2020, i.e. May 14, 2020, are on parental leave, parental leave for disabled child care or parental leave for accommodation for children entrusted for adoption;
• validity of collective bargaining agreements and collective agreements shall be maintained for a period of 90 days as of the end of the state of emergency;
• it is provided that for 2020, the number of paid days-off for one of the parents shall be established until the end of the courses of school year 2019-2020;
• the provisions of Law no. 19/2020 regulating the granting of days-off to parents for supervision of their children, in case of temporary closing of the education units, shall not apply to the employees from the national defense system, employees from penitentiaries, personnel of public medical units, personnel of residential social services and other categories established by orders or ministers;
• the obligation is instituted for employers in the private system, for the central and local public authorities and institutions, as well as for autonomous companies, national companies and companies with share capital fully owned or majority owned by the state or by an administrative and territorial unit with more than 50 employees to establish individualized working hours, without their employees’ consents, so that there is an interval of one hour at the start and at the end of the working hours, in an interval of three hours;
• individualized working hours and its means of distribution on days shall be established in the addendum to the individual employment agreement or in the administrative deed issued by the manager of the public authority or institution.

Health Area Measures

• it is provided that medical services and medicines for the treatment of the COVID-19 cases and their complications shall be granted to all the persons found in the territory of Romania and shall be borne from the budget of the Unique National Fund of Health Social Insurances;
• for the medical units with beds providing hospital medical services, in regime of continuous hospitalization, which have a contractual relation with the health insurance funds, the monthly settlement shall be made, under the law, without the regularization of quarters II and III being necessary any longer;
• the possibility is provided to carry out remote medical examinations, by using any means of communication;
• remote medical examinations carried out in primary medical assistance and clinical specialized ambulatory facilities shall be granted by compliance with the maximum number of medical examinations provided by the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 70/2020, i.e. maximum 8 medical examinations/hour/physician.
• persons insured for leaves and allowances of social insurances who are forbidden to continue their activity and for which the quarantine measure has been instituted as a consequence of a suspicion of infection with COVID-19 shall benefit from leaves and allowances for quarantine, regardless of the place where this is instituted;
• to insure the isolation conditions and the functional circuits having as purpose the prevention and control of infections with SARS-CoV-2, the organizational chart, reorganization and restructuring of medical units of the network of the Ministry of Health, of the ones subordinated to the local public administration authorities and the ones from the own network of other ministries and public institutions with own medical network shall be made by the county public health directorates/the public health directorate of Bucharest Municipality, depending on necessities;
• the endorsements issued by the county public health directorates and by the public health directorate of Bucharest Municipality in the period of the state of emergency, as well as the ones issued during the state of alert have a validity that may not exceed December 31, 2020;
• medical units, social assistance units and medical and social assistance units, as well as the public authorities and institutions may receive medicines, medical materials, medical devices, vaccines, serums, reagents, related consumables, as well as other types of services and products necessary to their activity, in the form of manual gift, irrespective of the value of the tangible assets transmitted by means of manual gift only with the acceptance endorsement of the National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of Romania.
• the possibility is provided for occupation for a period of maximum 6 months of the vacant or temporarily vacant positions from the Ministry of Health and the units in the subordination, coordination and under the authority of the Ministry of Health, including the occupation of the executive and management public offices, also by contractual personnel, without organizing any competition, in observance of the necessary qualification conditions to occupy such positions;

Trade Registry National Office Measures

• for a period of 6 months as of the end date of the state of emergency, the activity of The Office of Trade Register shall be conducted mainly by electronic means and correspondence;
• the term for the submission of the statement regarding the real beneficiary shall be prolonged until November 1, 2020;

• until November 1, 2020, the statement regarding the real beneficiary may have the form of a written record under private signature or an electronic form and may be transmitted to The Office of Trade Register without any other formality, by electronic means, with electronic signature or by mail and courier services. The statement regarding the real beneficiary may also have an authenticated form, certified by an attorney at law or made in front of The Office of Trade Register.

Cultural Area Measures

• for the events and festivals that were to be organized in the period of March 8 – September 30, 2020, or in the period when the right to organize events and festivals is suspended, in case of rescheduling of an event or festival, any participant in an event or festival may use their purchased access ticket, and in case of annulment of such event or festival or in case of impossibility to use the access ticket at the rescheduling date, such participant shall receive a voucher from the organizer for the entire amount paid to the organizer;
• if such a voucher is not used to purchase products or services until September 30, 2021 at the latest, the organizer shall reimburse all the amounts received from the consumer until December 31, 2021;

Education Area Measures

• for the school year 2019-2020, the tests for evaluation of the linguistic competences of verbal communication in Romanian, the tests for evaluation of the linguistic competences of verbal communication in the mother tongue, for the pupils with high school studies in a language of the national minorities, the tests for evaluation of the linguistic competences in an international language studied during high school education and the tests for evaluation of digital competences shall be validated/recognized according to the methodology approved by order of the Minister of Education and Research;
• for the school year 2019-2020, teachers taking the examination for full-time professional degree in education shall be recognized the mark obtained at the last class inspection, undergone in capacity as qualified teacher;

Document Validity Measures

• the validity of the proofs replacing the driving licenses shall be maintained – with the right to circulate – during the entire state of alert, as well as for a period of 45 days as of the end of such a state;
• the validity of prolongation of the provisional registration numbers shall be also maintained for the same periods;

Measures for Foreign Nationals

• the validity of the documents issued by the General Inspectorate for Immigration shall be maintained during the entire state of alert, as well as for a period of 90 days from the end of this state;

Economic Area Measures

• the term in which the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment may release emergency situation certificates shall be prolonged until June 15, 2020;
• any emergency situation certificate issued by the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment ascertains based on an affidavit that the economic operator has incurred a reduction of its incomes or incoming payments of minimum 25% in March, April or May 2020 as compared to the average of January and February 2020 or partial or total interruption of its activity as an effect of the decisions issued by the competent public authorities in the period of decreed state of emergency.

Read the Romanian version (PDF)