Romania’s government has decided to create an interinstitutional working group to improve operations at border crossing points. The immediate test is whether that effort addresses the staffing capacity behind the flow: the Meridian union says the Romanian Customs Authority has about 1,000 vacant posts.
The group, to be coordinated by the Interior Ministry, may still improve coordination or procedures. But those measures cannot automatically replace trained staff where customs checks and the management of freight flows depend on people being available at the post.
Meridian argues that congestion and delays stem from flawed personnel policy, including poor allocation of new staff, sporadic recruitment and transfers without sufficient specialist preparation. Those are the union’s claims, rather than findings from an independent audit supplied with this report. The available material also does not show how the roughly 1,000 vacancies are distributed across border points, regions or roles.
That limitation matters to the government’s new initiative. A task force focused only on short-term technical or organisational measures could treat traffic flow as separate from the capacity to carry out controls. Addressing recruitment, training and staff deployment would engage directly with the issue raised by customs employees.
There is a relevant counterargument: interinstitutional coordination can ease some bottlenecks before vacancies are filled. That is plausible. Yet the material available does not set out the group’s membership, timetable, staffing remit or the government’s response to Meridian’s demands. Those details will determine whether the new body can tackle a personnel problem as well as a process problem.
Sources
- Digi24 · Source date: 2026-11-09
Independent editorial content. WUA is not affiliated with any political party. 2026-11-09