How will Romania’s new digital planning gateway change construction approvals and the preparation of public projects?
A new legal framework for construction approvals
Romania’s new Code for Territorial Planning, Urbanism and Construction, known as CATUC, replaced significant parts of the previous framework, including Laws 350/2001 and 50/1991. Adopted through Law 169/2026, it entered into force on 25 August 2026 and introduces a national platform for planning, territorial development and building authorisations. The reform matters to public buyers and businesses involved in construction because the approval process can affect how projects move from planning to implementation. It does not create a procurement marketplace: the National One-Stop Shop is an administrative interface between applicants and competent authorities, intended to organise submissions, communications and decisions.
What the National One-Stop Shop will handle
Article 139 defines the National One-Stop Shop as a digital platform of national public interest. It is designed to receive and transmit documents for territorial and urban planning information, as well as for the authorisation of construction works. Applicants and authorities will be able to exchange requests for clarifications or amendments, arrange consultations on missing information, and issue or receive construction and demolition authorisations. Access will use a username and password or an application-generated access code, with differentiated security levels. The eligible users include central and local authorities, public-data and utility-network entities, certified project professionals, public and private investment project designers, lawyers and notaries.
Five years of phased implementation
The system will not become fully operational immediately. CATUC provides for phased implementation over five years from publication of the Code, as general urban plans and local planning regulations are integrated into the platform in GIS format. Because Law 169/2026 was published on 10 August 2026, mandatory use for public authorities and entities issuing approvals is due from 10 August 2031. That date does not necessarily mean every planning document will already be digitised; unavailable information can be added later. Until the relevant procedures are operational on the platform, administrative processes may continue through the methods allowed during the transition.
Legal checks remain separate from digital submission
Digital delivery may make it easier to coordinate applications, clarifications and communications, but it does not remove the need to check the legal and planning status of a proposed investment. The source article notes that ownership alone does not establish that a project can be built in the desired form. Lawyers will have access to the gateway, but CATUC does not make legal assistance compulsory. For complex developments involving several authorities, documents, approvals and legal conditions, a property or planning lawyer may help identify risks before an authorisation procedure begins. Projects already under way require separate review: procedures started before CATUC took effect remain subject to the rules in force when they began.
IN NUMBERS
For public procurers, developers and suppliers, the transferable point is that a digital gateway changes how approval information is exchanged, not the underlying obligation to meet planning, documentary and legal requirements. The five-year transition means project teams must establish which procedure and platform arrangements apply at the relevant stage.
Reported from economica.net, 2026-09-21. The Tender Wire is published by Otnox.
