Law 5/2026 has been in force for almost ten months. It cannot be applied. The government decision with the implementing rules is missing. The law stands. It has not been repealed.

On 7 October, at the Mobex exercise in Bucharest-Ilfov, Major General Mircea Gologan said the four-month basic training programme for volunteer term soldiers could not be started. The reason, in his words: the government has not adopted the acts that follow the law. The Army's 2026 plan was up to 3,500 volunteers, aged 18 to 35. They were not trained. Budget money had been allocated. At the end they would have received three average gross salaries, about 27,000 lei. The programme did not start, so the pay did not start.

Libertatea writes that Parliament voted the law on 22 October 2025. It appeared in the Official Gazette on 9 January 2026, as an amendment to Law 446/2006. The Bolojan government did not adopt the decision by 5 May, when it fell on a no-confidence motion.

Radu Miruță, former interim defence minister, told Libertatea the draft did not reach the cabinet table before the end of his term because not all ministries had endorsed it. Cătălin Predoiu: the Interior Ministry sent observations; on 8 October, the Defence Ministry resent a consolidated form; at Justice no such government decision is registered.

News.ro notes that, after the change of government, endorsement will most likely restart from zero. That is a forecast, not a decree.

A law without rules. Not a repeal.

Image: Rakoon, Ministry of National Defence, Bucharest, 3 October 2017, CC0, Wikimedia Commons; the building in 2017, not the 7 October 2026 Mobex exercise.

Sources consulted: The law on preparing the population for defence has been in force for 10 months, but cannot be applied - News.ro, 21 October 2026; The law has been in force for 10 months, but cannot be applied - Libertatea, 21 October 2026.