Energy #10 Legislative focus

GEO 38/2026 has moved from a broad emergency ordinance into a constitutional stress test.

The ordinance is already challenged before the Constitutional Court by the Ombudsman. In parallel, the Senate’s Constitutional Committee has argued that the case may involve a constitutional conflict between Parliament and Government.

The dispute is procedural, but the stakes are practical. Critics argue that the ordinance started as a SAFE-related measure linked to defence investment, then expanded during the Government meeting into a wider package covering energy support schemes, strategic investments, PNRR implementation and other unrelated areas.

The central questions are whether an interim Government still had the authority to adopt such a broad emergency ordinance, whether the later changes required a different procedure and whether the formal publication timeline creates legal vulnerability.

Senate leadership has rejected the criticism, arguing that the Government acted within the applicable procedure and that the revised text received the required Legislative Council opinion before the relevant deadline.

For companies, the issue is legal predictability.

GEO 38/2026 includes provisions with direct relevance for the energy sector, including the possible suspension of payments under energy compensation schemes where irregularities or budget risks are identified. It also includes measures linked to PNRR implementation and strategic investment procedures.

If the constitutional challenge advances, affected companies may face uncertainty over implementation timelines, administrative decisions and the durability of measures already introduced through the ordinance.

The file also shows a broader risk in Romanian law-making where business-relevant rules can be inserted into large emergency packages under political pressure, then become exposed to procedural challenges.

The Constitutional Court will review the Ombudsman’s challenge, while the Senate may separately decide whether to notify the Court regarding a constitutional conflict between Parliament and Government.

The Senate has adopted a draft bill introducing fiscal incentives for investments in the chemical industry based on natural gas. The Chamber of Deputies is the decisive chamber.

The package includes a five-year exemption for reinvested profit, accelerated depreciation allowing up to 65% depreciation in the first year and possible local tax exemptions for buildings and land used in gas-based chemical investments.

The proposal also removes certain land conversion charges for investment sites linked to this type of industrial activity.

The political logic is that Romania is preparing for higher gas production, including from offshore resources such as Neptun Deep, and the draft bill tries to push part of that future output towards domestic industrial processing rather than simple sale, export or direct consumption.

This is not only a fiscal file. It is an early industrial policy signal.

For investors, the bill could improve the economics of petrochemical, fertiliser and industrial chemical projects that depend on long-term access to natural gas as feedstock.

For the energy sector, the relevance lies in the link between upstream gas production and downstream industrial use. If adopted, the measure may strengthen the argument that Romanian gas should support domestic value chains, industrial competitiveness and higher-margin production.

The final impact will depend on eligibility rules, state aid compatibility and whether the incentives are strong enough to attract capital-intensive projects.

The draft bill will be debated in the Chamber of Deputies, where the main points to watch are eligibility conditions, state aid limits and the final structure of the tax incentives.

ANRE has launched a draft order changing the technical quality requirements for natural gas traded in Romania. The proposal updates parameters such as methane concentration, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, sulphur compounds, the Wobbe Index and dew points.

On paper, this looks like a technical regulatory file. In practice, it fits into a wider regional process linked to the Vertical Gas Corridor.

Bulgaria is moving in the same direction, and market participants have linked the Romanian and Bulgarian changes to the need to handle more diverse gas sources, including LNG. The corridor connects Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Ukraine and is increasingly relevant as the EU prepares to phase out Russian gas imports.

The underlying issue is that several systems in the region were historically built around gas quality standards shaped by Russian supply. As LNG and alternative sources become more important, those standards are being adjusted.

Gas quality harmonisation can remove technical friction from regional gas trade.

For traders and suppliers, the changes may increase sourcing flexibility and make LNG flows easier to move through the region. For transmission operators, the file is about interoperability, system compatibility and cross-border coordination.

For Romania, the proposal positions the national system as part of a wider regional gas corridor, rather than a standalone transmission market.

The impact will not be immediate for all companies, but the direction is relevant in the sense that gas security in the region is becoming a question of technical compatibility as much as infrastructure capacity.

ANRE’s consultation remains open until 25 May 2026. Further alignment may follow in other countries along the Vertical Gas Corridor.