Romania may include tax evasion in national defense strategy and use intelligence services to address it

The Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT) will discuss at its next meeting scheduled for this month the options to include the large-scale tax evasion in the National Defense Strategy and to involve the intelligence services in investigating large-scale tax evasion, president Nicusor Dan confirmed for G4media.ro. While the former would rather send a signal of confidence, the latter poses important constitutional challenges.

President Dan has already held a discussion on this topic with the interim prime minister, Cătălin Predoiu, who said that he is analyzing whether it is necessary to amend the National Defense Strategy to direct more institutional resources towards combating tax evasion.

"We are at a time when we need to send a signal of confidence to the financial market and investors regarding the economic measures for the second half of 2025. I am optimistic that we will be able to effectively fight against the great evasion, but the concrete effects will be visible in 2026," president Dan said.

The president specified that the adoption of these measures would require the support of a parliamentary majority, as the National Defense Strategy must be approved by Parliament by June 30.

Romania has previously involved its intelligence services in investigating corruption cases but in a manner declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court (CCR).

In February 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that the interceptions made with the technology of the intelligence services (SRI) based on a national security warrant issued by the Supreme Court were unconstitutional, and the evidence obtained in this way was removed from the files under trial.

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