Electronic Signature And The Romanian Authorities

13 April 2020 – As part of its response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Romania, the Romanian government has taken additional measures to reduce in-person interaction with public authorities.

New obligations for Romanian public authorities

Under the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 38/2020 ("GEO 38/2020"), all Romanian public authorities are required to take necessary measures for accepting electronically signed documents from the public and issuing to that end electronically signed official documents.

GEO 38/2020 is the first piece of national legislation expressly setting forth such obligations for the public authorities and is intended to unify the practice of the Romanian public authorities. Certain public authorities (e.g., the Commercial Registry, Romanian Electronic System for Public Procurements) have been accepting documents with qualified electronic signatures attached thereto prior to the enactment of GEO 38/2020. However, some authorities were still