The institution where the average salary is 3,700 euros wants to hire two former PSD MPs for the same position. Who are the persons?
In the midst of restructuring at the autonomous administrative authorities, imposed by Law 145/2025 for which the Bologna Government pledged its responsibility in the Parliament, the management of the energy regulator ANRE is trying to make hires. But they encounter legal problems, according to information obtained by HotNews from several sources within the institution. The average salary at ANRE is approximately 3,700 euros net.
More precisely, the ANRE management wants to employ Iulian Iancu and Gheorghe Marin, both former PSD parliamentarians, retired, for a single position, each with a four-hour norm. Iulian Iancu was a member of the Regulatory Committee, but his mandate expired in July of this year, remaining in an expert position within the institution.
However, on October 6, he vacated the post with his retirement, receiving assurances related to his re-employment, HotNews sources say.
Part-time expert position in the office of the vice president
In this regard, there is a request for employment as an expert in the ANRE vice-president Gabriel Andronache's cabinet, made on October 10, but it did not receive a positive opinion from the Legal Department.
At the same time, there is also a request for Gheorghe Marin, for the same expert position at Gabriel Andronache's office. Retired several years ago, after being a PSD senator from Argeș, he was also employed as an expert, releasing him at the same time as Iulian Iancu, with the promise of re-employment, say the same sources.
A few days later, ANRE vice-president Gabriel Andronache applied for the employment of the two as an expert in his office, each part-time, four hours/day.
Gabriel Andronache is vice-president of ANRE since April 2023, being supported by PSD. According to his CV, Andronache was a MAPN officer, active for 11 years. Later, he was a member of several boards of directors of state-owned companies.
HotNews has been asking ANRE since November 11 for an official answer related to these employment requests. Up to this moment no response has been sent, despite insistence.
Who is Iulian Iancu?
Contacted by HotNews, Iulian Iancu said that “this subject is permanently closed from October 6, 2025”.
“I don't know the details, but certainly not for me. I have definitively closed this topic”, said Iulian Iancu, when asked about the request for re-employment.
Iulian Iancu had several mandates as a PSD deputy, being the president of the industry committee in the Chamber of Deputies, before being appointed to the leadership of ANRE. Starting from 2012, Iancu's name was circulated several times for ministerial positions, but he was never appointed.
In 2017, Ludovic Orban accused him of playing the games of the Russian company Gazprom in the Romanian Parliament. Iulian Iancu's name appeared in the Wikileaks telegrams, published in 2011. According to them, his party colleague, Georgian Pop, said he was “controlled by Gazprom”.
Iulian Iancu sued Ludovic Orban. In 2019, the Bucharest Court decided that Ludovic Orban must pay Iulian Iancu moral damages of 20,000 lei. In 2022, the Bucharest Court of Appeal admitted an appeal made by Ludovic Orban and changed the sentence, considering the action as unfounded, according to JustNews.
Why it is not legal to employ two people in the same position at ANRE
The legal department did not approve the requests, for several reasons, according to HotNews information:
– The requests were made by the vice-president, with the approval of the president. But the legal competence as an employer belongs exclusively to the president George Niculescu, according to ANRE regulations.
– There are no part-time positions within ANRE, according to the Organization and Operation Regulation and the Collective Labor Agreement. The post of expert can only be filled by one person, full-time. Under these conditions, it is not possible to hire two distinct people for this position. Practically, there are no regulations regarding the operation of ANRE that allow the division of such a post into two.
– ANRE did not comply with the obligation imposed by art. 107 of the Labor Code to inform employees about the availability of new positions, by displaying an announcement at the institution's headquarters and sending it to employee representatives. Thus, converting a full-time position into one with two half-time positions is not legal.
– Law 145/2025 on the reform of the ANRE (energy), ASF (financial supervision) and ANCOM (communications) regulatory authorities is also invoked, a law assumed in Parliament by the Bolojan Government. According to the Law, the number of positions must be reduced. These hires are considered inappropriate considering that Law 145 provides for a 10% reduction in specialized positions and a 30% reduction in support structures.
ANRE reform: Four people out of almost 300 are leaving
The head of the institution, George Niculescu, announced on October 28 in Parliament, on the occasion of the presentation of the ANRE restructuring report, that 4 people are leaving following the reform requested by Bolojan. Four out of 293 employees. According to ANRE sources, the people who are leaving also have a pension.
Asked by HotNews, at the end of the hearings in Parliament, what kind of restructuring is this in which only four people are leaving, Niculescu invoked Law 145/2025 “which talks about reducing the number of positions, not the number of people”.
Niculescu claims that since he took over the mandate, he has followed a “cautious” personnel policy and that since January, this year, he has not put any post up for competition. “That's why the number of people who will be affected by this restructuring is smaller compared to the number of positions (…) Considering the prudent human resources policy we had during this period, the number of people who will be affected by this restructuring is a small one”, said Niculescu.
Asked what savings ANRE makes with the departure of the four people, Niculescu avoided the answer, saying that the budget is calculated “for the number of positions, not the number of employees”.
Ilie Bolojan: It is a form of trickery
Later, in an interview for HotNews, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan stated that he cannot be satisfied with the “pseudo-measures” taken by the management of the regulatory authorities.
He then explained: “It's not because it's a matter that concerns me, it's a form of respect for the Romanian citizens. If we pretend that we're doing certain things, people will realize that it's a form of trickery and we don't have any form of budgetary effects. We don't do this to be in business, but we do these things because they are a necessity”, declared Ilie Bolojan.
He also said that some reforms are a “sham”.
The average salary at ANRE is approximately 3,700 euros net. The liberal George Niculescu, the president of ANRE, receives a monthly allowance of around 15,000 euros net.
In addition to the attractive salary, some of the employees receive access to information related to the energy market.
