As a European Union (EU) Member State, Romania is governed by Regulation No. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (eIDAS). For more information on eIDAS, please read the Electronic Signature Laws & Regulations in the EU.
Overview
In Romania, the use of electronic signatures, including certificate-based digital signatures, by natural or legal persons is more common than the use of electronic signatures by public authorities or institutions. However, use is steadily increasing across private and public sectors.
Next to the eIDAS Regulation, the key laws in Romania that regulate the use of electronic signatures include:
- Law no. 455/2001 on electronic signatures;
- Law no. 451/2004 on time stamps;
- Emergency Ordinance no. 38/2020 on the use of electronic documents by public authorities and institutions;
- The Civil Procedure Code which states that an electronic signature is valid if it respects the provisions of the applicable legislation; and
- Law no. 53/2003 on the Labour Code has recent amendments that provide the conditions under which certain employment related documents may be signed by means of electronic signature.
Law no. 455/2001 provides two types of electronic signatures: (1) the standard electronic signature; and (2) the extended electronic signature. An extended electronic signature is similar to an advanced electronic signature (AdES) under the eIDAS Regulation.
Both law no. 455/2001 and 451/2004 were initially adopted in connection with Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic signatures (which was repealed by the eIDAS Regulation) but remain in force even after the adoption of the eIDAS Regulation. However, if the provisions of either aforementioned law conflicts with the eIDAS Regulation, the eIDAS Regulation will prevail.
EU Member States have the obligation to establish, maintain and publish trusted lists of Qualified Trust Service Providers (QTSPs) and the qualified trust services provided by them. A QTSP certified in any EU Member State will be recognized as a QTSP by all other Member States. Accordingly, no EU Member State may question the qualified status once a QTSP has been added to the trusted list by the supervisory authority of another Member State. The list of QTSP providers for Portugal is available at https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/tl-browser/#/tl/RO.
Special Considerations
Transacting with public sector entities
The recent Emergency Ordinance no. 38/2020 on the use of electronic documents by public authorities and institutions provides the general framework for the use of electronic documents and electronic signatures by public authorities and institutions. This Ordinance, which was adopted to ensure business continuity for public authorities and institutions provides that:
- all public authorities and institutions (with the exception of the Parliament, the President and the judicial authorities) must issue documents bearing a qualified electronic signature (QES) and must receive documents bearing an electronic signature;
- a general rule is that any document received by public authorities and institutions that bears an AdES or an electronic signature that has at least the same authentication level as an AdES is considered equivalent to a private deed;
- public institutions, specialised bodies of the central and local public administration, as well as private legal entities which, according to the law, have obtained public utility status or are authorised to provide a public service, under public authority, must accept documents issued by public or private legal entities in electronic format, which have a qualified or advanced electronic signature
- exceptions to the general rule occur in those cases where the public authority or institution establishes that a different type of electronic signature is required to utilize their online service (such as the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks accepting only a QES for online fillings).
Use cases that generally require a traditional signature
In Romania, documents that generally require the use of a handwritten signature include:
- Wills
- Documents for registration or transfer of shares or corporate changes with the Trade Registry
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