Cuprins:
On 3 June we published a policy paper that opened like this: “We are writing this document in May 2026, before a new government has been formed.” At that point, the President had made a first nomination for prime minister. In that context, Edge Institute’s intention was to deliver a set of public policy proposals essential for Romania to advance along the trajectory of digital transformation and AI governance.
On Monday, 21 September, President Nicușor Dan signed the decree nominating Mr. Siegfried Mureșan for the position of prime minister, and the governing program, according to the statements of the prime minister designate, will be submitted to Parliament by the end of this week.
So today, instead of writing a new article on a different topic, we have chosen to republish entire passages from the material we put out 112 days ago. This time too, we hope our June call finds a recipient in the new prime minister and across the proposed cabinet. This time too, we make clear our interest in seeing these proposals reflected in the governing program and in the governance structure of the incoming Executive.
The Diagnosis, in Numbers
Edge Institute & Digital Nation, October 2025
with the diagnosis "a vacuum in strategic digital governance"
according to Dela0.ro
Coherent and coordinated digitalization can deliver annual growth of 1 - 1.5% of GDP.
The five steps we propose below are the institutional minimum needed for the digitalization of the Romanian state to become an operational program with public deadlines and clear leadership, instead of a rhetorical backdrop that all governments, in turn, put to use.
The Five Steps
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01
Confirming the position of Deputy Prime Minister for Digital Transformation, with a clear mandate dedicated to accelerating the digitalization of public services.
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02
Appointing the ADR President as Government CIO, with the rank of State Secretary, at the helm of a reformed ADR, placed at the Center of Government, apolitical, with a clearly defined technical mandate.
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03
Operationalizing the Digital Council through the restructuring of CERB, with a monthly calendar of mandatory meetings and decisions of a mandatory, executive nature.
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04
Launching a dedicated Team for the Government Digital Wallet, a dedicated unit of at least 20 specialists with a single leader.
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05
Building governance and artificial intelligence utilization capacity: mandatory guide through a Government Decision, framework for public procurement of AI, at least two pilot programs, national sandbox, AI literacy program.
What Has Changed in 112 Days
Click each date to see what has changed.
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2 August 2026in force
From this date, the transparency obligations in the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, article 113, apply.
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31 August 2026deadline reached
The deadline for financing the reforms in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) has passed.
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31 December 2026in 100 days
The deadline set by the eIDAS 2 Regulation for the European digital identity wallet expires.
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December 2027upcoming
The obligations for high-risk systems, postponed through the Omnibus Regulation, enter into force.
The deadline for financing the reforms under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) was reached on 31 August. From the perspective of digital transformation, the conclusion is clear: Romania managed to accelerate technical digitalization processes, but those processes did not also translate into broader rates of use for electronic public services.
The transparency obligations in the EU Artificial Intelligence Act apply as of 2 August 2026 (art. 113), while the obligations for high-risk systems have been postponed, through the Omnibus Regulation, to December 2027. Step 5 above thus gains a realistic deadline: the draft law with measures on the implementation of the Artificial Intelligence Act must be put out for public consultation within the first 100 days of the new Government.
The eIDAS 2 Regulation deadline for the European digital identity wallet, 31 December 2026, is only 100 days away and, although the project is moving well through the integration of the German solution, it could benefit in 2027 from dedicated resources meant to accelerate adoption and bring significant impact to the digital transformation of public services. Step 4 calls for budget coverage for this effort in 2027, something the new Government can take into account right now. The rest of the call needs no updating.
This is the moment. There is no better one than this.
In “Digital Government Review of Romania” (2023), the OECD wrote explicitly: “Romania needs to further strengthen the governance of digital government, as the organisation steering the digital transformation of government is not yet positioned strategically to gain necessary political support and legitimacy across the public sector.” The OECD added another sentence that speaks volumes about the state of digitalization in Romania, a perspective we repeat in every article: “There is a need to transition from focusing on the adoption of legal measures to focusing on implementation.”
Romania will have a new Government, and on digitalization, a great many voices are saying it, it needs a leader and a command center. The governing program is the moment when leadership takes up the good ideas of the past or buries them because they belonged to others.
Edge Institute is launching this vision document with the expectation that the digital leadership to be appointed will also take on the courage to say that, without such governance, we drift further from the European average and from the massive opportunities we can access through clear and committed decisions.
We published the Call for Romania’s Digital Transformation on 3 June 2026, and that text has not aged at all. It deserves a second reading, because it remains fully relevant today. We are republishing it exactly as it stands because we are convinced that the measures we defined there, in the form of the 5 steps mentioned above, can contribute to the digital leap Romania needs so badly. If the Mureșan Government does not pass the vote in Parliament, we will return with a further republication when another prime-minister option is nominated.