Digitalization in Romania, suffocated under stacks of paper

An eloquent example is the process of approving local council decisions (HCL), which generates 37,752 round trips annually between commune mayors and prefectures, just for legality control, according to a calculation made by the APSAP Training Center, the largest professional training center for employees in many fields. However, reality shows that many public administration activities involve the generation of documents, implicitly duplicating those submitted online by printing them, which turns into inefficient work and high expenses.

How real is the digitalization of public administration in Romania?

The APSAP Training Center points out that this process could be completely digitalized, but Romania remains stuck in a suffocating bureaucracy. Instead of reducing the amount of paper used, a system is created that only adds new electronic documents that, in the end, still have to be printed, signed and physically transported. Real digitalization involves automating processes, not transforming them into an absurd combination of digital and paper.

“In 2025, Romania continues to function, in many ways, as it did a century ago. Voluminous files, full of papers, continue to be the rule, and the decision-making process, from the initiation of a draft law to its adoption, is a real bureaucratic marathon that involves a lot of paper. The digitalization of the administration remains just a desire beautifully packaged in optimistic speeches, but without real applicability. In recent years, “digitalization” has become a fashionable word, used in almost every political discourse. However, real digitalization involves the complete elimination of paper and the automation of processes, not just the creation of new electronic forms that, in the end, must be printed and physically archived. In Romania, the implementation of a digitalization system does not replace traditional bureaucracy, but only adds to the huge volume of documents that continue to be printed”, declares Bogdan Costin Fârșirotu, president of Centrul de Formare APSAP.

A relevant example of this inefficiency is the process of approving local council decisions (HCL), for which a large amount of paper and a lot of time are consumed for traveling to submit physical documents.

More precisely, after the documents are prepared and approved during the local council meeting, the file is multiplied and physically sent to the Prefecture for legality control - without which the Decisions do not produce their legal effects. At the national level, Romania has 3,146 administrative-territorial units, excluding the city halls of the county seat municipalities and the Municipality of Bucharest. In a simple calculation, if only one local council meeting per month is taken into account, this means approximately 37,752 round trips annually just to transport physical documents between commune and prefecture offices. The costs are exorbitant – millions of lei spent annually on these trips, paper, printing and fuel expenses, plus the time and personnel resources spent on the congested roads of the homeland between communes and the county seat. In other words, money wasted instead of being invested in digital solutions that would eliminate the need for this absurd circuit.

And in the process of accessing European funds for the digitalization of Romania, paper is paradoxically "in power", with millions of documents being printed.

“In Romania, digitalization fails right where it should work flawlessly: in accessing European funds intended for digitalization! European money, made available through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) – Component 7, should transform the administration and the economy, but is suffocated by a revolting bureaucratic paradox. Romania manages a budget of €1.62 billion, but the process of accessing these funds looks more like an administrative parody than a modernized program. Millions of pages printed, scanned and then digitally signed are evaluated, ironically, in physical format, on paper, by monitoring teams at the ministry, the regional intermediary body or the management authority. An absurd bureaucracy that demonstrates that, in Romania, digitalization is just a pompous slogan on paper... a lot of paper!”, points out Bogdan Costin Fârșirotu.

While other European countries are simplifying access to funds through efficient digital platforms, Romania remains trapped in the past, making it difficult or even preventing companies and institutions from benefiting from promised investments. The result? Delays, blockages and the real risk that a large part of the money will be lost.

Organizing courses from European funds, bureaucracy to the 10th power 

And for courses financed from European funds, the state requires a large amount of printed documents. If a regular vocational training course involves a mountain of bureaucracy, then a course financed from European funds takes this process to an absurd level. The evaluation and settlement of expenses becomes at least 10 times more complicated, transforming an initiative to support education into an almost impossible bureaucratic maze.

“In theory, things seem simple: a European project provides for the formation of a target group of 28 people, and the result indicator is obtaining a graduation certificate. What could be clearer than that? In reality, however, any organization that engages in this process must be prepared for an administrative tsunami. If the standard procedure for organizing a course authorized by the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Education already involves an avalanche of printed documents, in the case of European projects, this burden multiplies exponentially,” says Bogdan Costin Fârșirotu.

Some real-life examples of documents that need to be printed:

• Dozens of additional standard forms for each student.
• Activity reports, Attendance reports, Minutes, Statements, Minutes and other supporting documents – each physically and digitally signed.
• Hundreds of screenshots (print-screens) printed on A4 paper, signed and stamped for "proof" of online activity.
• Gigabytes of video recordings, digital documents, and electronic archives additionally requested, as if the volume of papers were not enough.
• Additional addresses and requests from the financier, who seems to operate under the premise that the beneficiaries are potential criminals, trying to defraud a system already monitored by two ministries and the Participant Evaluation Commission.

Many organizations end up giving up not because they can't implement the courses, but because they are suffocated by an absurd bureaucratic volume. Thousands of physically and digitally signed pages, stored in hundreds of bibliorafts, become more important than the educational act itself, explains Fârșirotu.

Worse, these administrative processes almost completely take over the organization's activities, leaving very little space for the actual delivery of courses. To cope with the avalanche of documents and requirements imposed by funders, organizational charts must be supplemented with new employees, not to improve the quality of education, but to manage the tons of unnecessary paperwork, reports, and checks.

"Basically, 80% of the activity is consumed by bureaucracy, and only 20% remains for what should be the main purpose: professional training. Instead of facilitating access to education, the system pushes organizations towards blockage, and many choose to give up, not due to lack of competence, but because of a system that has turned digitalization into a bureaucratic farce. When will we understand that education and digitalization do not mean more paper? Until when will Romania treat every beneficiary of European funds as a potential criminal? These questions remain unanswered, while tons of printed documents suffocate any real intention to modernize education”, concludes Bogdan Costin Fârșirotu.

While other European countries are implementing effective digital solutions to reduce bureaucracy, Romania continues to block modernization through a system that turns digitalization into a mere bureaucratic pretext. Without real reform, public administration will remain a prisoner of stacks of paper, and European funds intended for modernization risk being lost.