Romanian air navigation agency ROMATSA caught in enforcement measure over Pfizer lawsuit
Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration, or ROMATSA, was notified by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) of the establishment, on June 30, 2026, of a precautionary-enforcement garnishment measure as part of a forced execution procedure initiated by the drugmaker Pfizer against the Romanian state.
Under this notification, EUROCONTROL is legally obliged to declare, within 15 days, the amounts held or owed to the Romanian state and to temporarily freeze them, being prohibited from making payments to any person other than the party requesting the garnishment, until the dispute is resolved.
The execution procedure was initiated to recover RON 3.4 billion, principal and interest, to which recovery costs of EUR 18.5 million were added. ROMATSA said it contacted a law firm in Belgium that assisted the institution in similar situations to challenge the execution.
“The notification received represents a procedural stage of an enforcement procedure concerning the state, not the agency, whose revenues are, however, affected. This is the third such situation faced by ROMATSA through the collection mechanism administered by EUROCONTROL, following previous cases recorded in the Micula case in 2015 and 2019,” the ROMATSA statement reads.
ROMATSA explained in the press release that the air navigation services are operating under normal conditions, with no impact on the safety, continuity, or quality of air traffic services.
The agency has also urgently informed the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure and the Ministry of Finance of the situation.
At the beginning of April, a Belgian court ordered Poland and Romania to take delivery of a COVID-19 vaccine shipment with a combined value of EUR 1.9 billion produced by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
According to the court statement, Romania has to pay approximately EUR 600 million of the total sum, about 0.2% of its GDP. The sum poses a significant burden at a time when the government is attempting to reduce the fiscal deficit. In addition to the principal amount, interest charges continue to accumulate at a rate of approximately EUR 81,000 per day, equivalent to nearly EUR 2.5 million per month.
The dispute stems from contracts concluded during the COVID-19 pandemic for the purchase of vaccines, when European governments committed to large procurement volumes amid uncertainty over the evolution of the health crisis.
Romanian interim prime minister Ilie Bolojan said that the government will challenge the enforcement proceedings against ROMATSA and will continue discussions with Pfizer to find a procedure that would allow the dispute to be resolved “in a manner acceptable to both countries and in a formula that is sustainable for the state budget.” He assured that the company will continue to operate without any problems, according to Biziday.
(Photo source: Facebook/Romatsa R.A)
