April 3rd, 2020, Source: CMS Law-Now, Authors: Gabriel Sidere, Cristina Popescu, Laura Capata

On 16 March 2020, the Romanian President declared a state of emergency for the next 30 days to limit the spread of COVID-19 and manage its effects (the “State Emergency Decree”).

Neither the State Emergency Decree, nor the subsequent military ordinances that followed included the amendment of the public procurement legal framework in Romania. However new emergency measures, as well as certain gradual/progressive measures, which may be taken in the future, depending on the developments, have a significant impact on public procurement procedures, ongoing and future, as well as existing public procurement contracts. The guidance below addresses stringent questions at present:

1. 1. Ongoing procurement procedures are not automatically suspended

Neither the State Emergency Decree, nor the subsequent measures taken by the Romanian Government contain provisions whereby deadlines in public procurement award procedures are suspended. Thus, relevant deadlines applicable in the context of an award procedure (such as the deadline for submitting offers) continue.

According to public records, for the time being procuring authorities in Romania continue to carry out public award procedures, but one can expect that this may not happen in the near future with increased security measures in the pipeline as COVID-19 develops further in Romania.

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