How the head of the Chancellery explains to Bolojan why the number of members of the Commission secreted by Ciolacu that examines foreign investments has not been reduced even now

The Chancellery of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has not yet reduced the number of members of the Foreign Direct Investment Review Commission (CEISD) from 11 to 7, as announced in July 2025, this will be done in the following period through an emergency ordinance.

“If it was just about reducing the number of members, it was simple, but it came together with the change of the entire decision-making ecosystem”, Mihai Jurca, the head of the Chancellery, stated for HotNews.

According to him, “the changes that will be brought to the CEISD, as well as all the reduced deadlines, involved extensive discussions both with the business environment and with the national security institutions and CSAT”.

The head of the Chancellery said that “the number of CEISD members is regulated by the CEISD organization law and the reduction could not be made without amending the law, which will now be done through this Emergency Ordinance.”

On the other hand, he explained, “the reduction in allowances and the decrease in the number of experts could be done last summer by amending the organization regulation of the CEISD”.

“What I must emphasize is the fact that wherever we were able to reduce expenses, and I gave the two examples that burdened the budget the most, they were reduced. Including the members of the board, their allowances were reduced”, declared Mihai Jurca.

Why the composition of CEISD members was not declassified

HotNews asked the head of Bolojan's Chancellery and why he has not yet declassified the names of those who are part of this Commission, as he announced last summer.

“After the GEO is adopted, the representatives will be mentioned by name and surname. We need this legislative amendment. After the ordinance is passed, people will be visible. Anyway, it is known that the president of the CEISD is the head of the Chancellery. It is secrecy for the sake of secrecy. When the legislation is passed, I will make public the list of the people who are, both the council members and the technical experts, we have no problem”, he said Mihai Jurca.

The reorganization announced by Mihai Jurca in July 2025

The head of the Prime Minister's Chancellery, Mihai Jurca, announced on July 18, 2025 the restructuring of the commission discovered by Ilie Bolojan, whose members could double their salaries with three meetings per month.

Jurca then announced that the number of CEISD management members would decrease from 11 to 7, “identical to the composition of CSAT”, and the technical team would be reduced from 73 to 45 members.

And the monthly allowance was to be reduced.

Following a question addressed by HotNews, Mihai Jurca announced that the composition of this commission will be declassified. In January 2025, former Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu changed the composition of the commission and, at the same time, kept it secret.

“I will declassify, probably in about two weeks, when we come back with a decision or an ordinance. It will be declassified without any problem,” Mihai Jurca said then, when asked by HotNews if declassification of the composition of the commission is being considered.

What changes will be made now through the GEO

The Chancellery of Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan launched on Friday evening in public consultation a draft emergency ordinance that provides for the reduction of the number of members with voting rights of the Foreign Direct Investment Examination Commission, from the current 11 members, to 7 members, while the threshold for transactions that need this opinion will increase from 2 million euros to 5 million euros.

The government recalls, in the draft, that it reduced the allowances of CEISD members and experts, respectively:

• “For members of the Commission, currently, the value of the monthly allowance represents 15% of a minister's allowance (compared to 30%, as it was before the legislative amendment adopted by the current government), regardless of the number of meetings, that is, approximately 1,900 lei net per month, regardless of how many meetings a member of the Commission attends. Before, the allowance was granted for attending each meeting.
• For experts, currently, the value of the monthly allowance represents 12% of a minister's allowance (compared to 15%, before), regardless of the number of meetings, that is, approximately 1,500 lei net per month, regardless of how many meetings an expert attends or prepares. Also, before the allowance was granted for each meeting.“

The Commission for the Examination of Direct Investments (CEID), a collegial body without legal personality, subordinate to the Government of Romania, will be formed by the following members:

• a) Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, who will have the capacity of president of CEID
• b) a representative of the Ministry of Economy, Digitalization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism
• c) a representative of the Ministry of Finance
• d) a representative of the Ministry of National Defense
• e) a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
• f) a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• g) a representative of the General Secretariat of the Government

Within the CEID, representatives of the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunications Service and the Romanian Investment and Foreign Trade Agency have the status of permanent guests.

Also, depending on the field of activity covered by the investment under examination, CEID may invite, without the right to vote, representatives of competent public authorities or institutions, including ministries with attributions in the respective field, in order to formulate points of view or provide specialized expertise.

The procedure for submitting applications for examination by investors will be fully digitized, with a dedicated digital platform developed by STS being made available. The examination fee will be halved, from the current 10,000 euros to 5,000 euros. The activity will be self-financing, and the surplus will be paid to the state budget at the end of the year.

The administrative procedure will be simplified and shortened. If currently the total duration of the analysis and issuance of authorization documents to the investor is 125 days, this term will be reduced to more than half, namely to 60 calendar days, and the analysis term will be reduced from 60 calendar days to 45 calendar days.