Romanian Prime Minister details strategy for managing state-owned enterprise governance
Romania Announces Comprehensive Reform for State-Owned Enterprises
In a bid to enhance transparency, efficiency, and accountability in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the Romanian government has announced a comprehensive reform package. The reform, announced by Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and Deputy Prime Minister Dragoș Anastasiu on July 22, 2025, focuses on three main areas: full transparency, management streamlining, and revising performance indicators.
1. Full Transparency
The government mandates public disclosure of detailed information about SOEs’ management, including the identities of managers, their remuneration, company financials, and the performance indicators used to assess these companies. This data, published by the Agency for Monitoring the Performance of Public Enterprises (AMEPIP), will be released in a comprehensive dataset on July 23, 2025.
The transparency effort aims to eliminate opacity around SOE management and their earnings, promoting accountability without shame about the earnings or company performance.
2. Management Streamlining
The reforms target reducing the size of SOE boards to make governance more efficient. The government plans to cap earnings for board members by amending relevant legislation, aiming to curb excessive remuneration in line with fiscal consolidation policies. The reform also involves setting clearer and updated performance indicators that will be used for future evaluations of board members’ effectiveness.
3. Performance Indicator Revisions
New performance indicators are being defined as part of the corporate governance amendments, intended to better assess and guide the effectiveness of SOE boards and management. These indicators will form an essential part of the monitoring and evaluation framework applied by AMEPIP. The indicators are aligned with Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), ensuring consistency with broader national strategic goals.
Each ministry will review the performance indicators for SOEs. Minister of economy Radu Miruta has admitted that enforcing new performance indicators depends on each minister's commitment.
Additional Context
The reform package is expected to be delivered in an initial form by the end of July and complements the first fiscal corrective package. The Romanian government formed an advisory council of experts to recommend best practices in corporate governance, but this group has no executive power and only provides strategic advice.
Following the resignation of Deputy PM Anastasiu on July 27, PM Bolojan took direct charge of the reform efforts and the supervision agency AMEPIP, underscoring the government’s commitment to anti-corruption and governance reforms.
If the management does not accept the new performance indicators, the government may take steps to enforce them. Some managing boards in SOEs have signed four-year contracts that cannot be scrapped overnight, and holding responsible management members for losses incurred by the companies due to past decisions could be a last resort procedure.
The reforms aim to provide sustainability to the fiscal consolidation through their expected long-term results. The performance indicators for SOEs will be reviewed by each ministry, with Radu Miruta explaining that this procedure could be used in some cases.
In summary, Romania's plan includes increased public disclosure by SOEs, reducing board sizes, legislating caps on board member earnings, and revising performance indicators to enhance efficiency and accountability in state enterprise management, all anchored within national fiscal consolidation and recovery strategies. These steps are coordinated under the government’s legislative initiatives and monitored through AMEPIP.
- To further improve accountability in state-owned enterprise (SOE) business, the Romanian government will disclose detailed financial information, management remuneration, and other pertinent data, which will be made available on July 23, 2025, by the Agency for Monitoring the Performance of Public Enterprises (AMEPIP).
- For efficient management in SOEs, the reforms propose reducing the size of SOE boards, capping earnings for board members, and revising performance indicators to align with Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). These changes aim to streamline governance and ensure the sustainability of fiscal consolidation efforts in the finance sector.
