azamfir@bondoc-asociatii.ro 21 February 2025

Romania’s extra mile in the context of the upcoming Romanian Presidential Elections: brief considerations on political advertising (materials)

Introduction

Romania has recently further regulated transparency in advertising materials aiming to avoid undue voter influence in 2025 elections campaigns. More specifically, Government Emergency Ordinance No. 1/2025 on certain measures for the organization and conduct of the 2025 elections for the President of Romania and the 2025 local by-elections (“GEO No. 1/2025“) has introduced certain additional rules for advertising during the electoral campaign in Romania.

GEO No. 1/2025 takes inspiration from and builds on several provisions of the Regulation (EU) 2024/900 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2024 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising (the “Political Advertising Regulation” or the “Regulation”)[1].

This article comments on certain legal implications of GEO No. 1/2025 and its interaction with other European regulations.

1. New rules, new impact – what is there to know about GEO No. 1/2025 for political actors

GEO No. 1/2025 addresses key aspects regarding transparency, fairness, and accountability in political advertising, representing a framework specific to the 2025 Presidential Elections (“Presidential Elections“).

One of the central themes of GEO No. 1/2025 is the regulation of transparency obligations regarding political advertising. Specifically, “political advertising materials” are defined as any written, online, audio or video material used in an election campaign which directly or indirectly encourages voters to elect or not to elect, to vote or not to vote for an independent candidate or for a candidate of a clearly identified political party.

This new terminology seemed to overlap with the existing definition of electoral propaganda material as provided under the existing Romanian law[2], raising concerns about the potential double application of regulations to online publications. In response, the Permanent Electoral Authority (“PEA”) clarified in a recently published draft decision[3] (the “PEA Draft Decision”) that electoral propaganda materials are equivalent to “political advertising materials” as defined by GEO No. 1/2025. However, the PEA Draft Decision can be further amended after the public consultation period.

[1] Which entered into force in April 2024 and will become applicable as of 10 October 2025 (except for Article 3 (Definitions) and Article 5(1) (non-discrimination by providers of political advertising services), which already apply.

[2] Specifically defined in Article 36(7) of Law 334/2006 on the financing of political parties and electoral campaigns as any written, audio, or video content that cumulatively meets the following criteria: (i) it explicitly references a clearly identified candidate or political party participating in elections; (ii) it is used, as a general rule, during the election campaign; (iii) it has an electoral objective and targets the general public; and (iv) it exceeds the boundaries of journalistic activities aimed at informing the public.

[3] Draft Decision on the procedure for the promotion, distribution, publication or editing of political advertising materials used in the electoral campaign for the elections for the President of Romania in 2025, published for public consultation on February 13, 2025, on PEA website (available here, in Romanian).