The state of emergency was instituted in Romania for a period of 30 days as of 16 March 2020 (i.e. the date when Decree No. 195/2020 establishing the state of emergency in Romania was published in the Official Gazette).
We have included below a short review of the main measures provided by the state of emergency decree from real estate projects perspective:
- Issuance of emergency situation certificates in order to prove that an economic operator’s activity was affected because of COVID-19’s impact:
- the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Affairs will issue emergency situation certificates based on supporting documents upon request of the economic operators whose activity is affected because of COVID-19;
- In relation to public authorities:
- the validity of the documents issued by the public authorities which were to expire during the state of emergency shall be maintained;
- during the state of emergency, the legal terms for the public authorities’ responding to requests submitted based on free access to public interest information, as well as those related to petitions, are doubled.
- State authorities may gradually adopt measures such as temporary closing of restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, clubs, casinos, associations’ headquarters or other public places;
Thus, authorities have already ordered the temporary closing of shopping centers (except for sale of food, pharmaceutical or veterinary products or cleaning services) and suspension of activities such as food or beverage serving within restaurants or other public places, as well as cultural, sports, entertainment or gambling activities within enclosed spaces.
- The Government may adopt measures for supporting companies and other entities affected by COVID-19 crisis, as well as for supporting the employers and employees.
- Statutes of limitations and time bars do not begin to run and, if already commenced, are suspended for the duration of the state of emergency.
