ROMATSA Hit by Second Crisis as Accounts Are Frozen After Licence Suspension Scandal

ROMATSA, Romania’s air traffic services authority, is facing a second major crisis in just a few days after EUROCONTROL notified the institution that funds collected for Romanian air navigation services had been frozen as part of an enforcement procedure initiated by Pfizer Romania against the Romanian state.

The move comes shortly after the Bucharest Court of Appeal ordered the suspension for 30 days of ROMATSA’s Air Navigation Service Provider certificate, a decision that triggered national security concerns and brought the case before Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defence.

The two cases are legally separate, but politically and institutionally they now form a single damaging picture: Romania’s only air traffic services provider is under pressure from both a domestic court ruling that could affect its licence and a Belgian enforcement procedure connected to the state’s lost dispute with Pfizer.

ROMATSA Already Under Pressure After Court Ruling

The first shock came from the Romanian judiciary. In February 2026, the Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled that ROMATSA’s certificate as an air navigation service provider should be suspended for one month.

The ruling followed a lawsuit filed by air traffic controllers who accused the institution of discrimination in employment-related procedures. The case rapidly moved beyond a labour dispute because ROMATSA is the only certified provider of air traffic services in Romania.

If the suspension were to take effect, Romania could face serious difficulties in managing aircraft taking off, landing or transiting its airspace. That is why the case reached CSAT, where authorities warned that any interruption of ROMATSA’s operations could pose a major vulnerability to national security, commercial aviation, military coordination, and Romania’s role in regional air traffic management.

For now, ROMATSA continues to operate normally. The ruling has not produced an operational shutdown, and Romanian air traffic services remain active.

Then Came the Pfizer Enforcement

While the licence suspension scandal was still unfolding, ROMATSA received another blow.

The institution announced that EUROCONTROL had notified it of the establishment, on June 30, 2026, of a precautionary enforcement seizure in a procedure initiated by Pfizer Romania against the Romanian state.

The claim amounts to 3,419,721,100.56 lei in principal and interest, plus recovery costs of 18,564,777.07 euros.

ROMATSA stressed that it is not a party to the dispute between Pfizer and the Romanian state. The institution is not being sued by Pfizer and is not the debtor in the vaccine case. However, the enforcement measure affects sums collected through EUROCONTROL for en-route air navigation services provided by ROMATSA.

In practical terms, the problem appears because EUROCONTROL collects route charges and then transfers the relevant amounts to the national air navigation service providers. In Romania’s case, those amounts are connected to ROMATSA’s activity.

A Strategic Institution Caught Between Court and Creditors

This is why the scandal is more serious than a simple financial dispute.

ROMATSA is not an ordinary state company. It manages air traffic services for Romanian airspace and plays a critical role in commercial aviation, emergency flights, military coordination and international air corridors.

The court ruling raised the question of whether Romania’s only air traffic services provider could temporarily lose its operating certificate. The Pfizer enforcement raises another question: whether the financial flows of such a strategic institution can be blocked because of debts owed by the Romanian state.

Together, the two developments expose an institutional vulnerability. ROMATSA is being hit from two directions at once: one legal dispute over its certificate and one enforcement procedure over money owed by the state.

Air Traffic Not Affected for Now

ROMATSA says air navigation services are currently operating normally. According to the institution, there is no impact at this moment on the safety, continuity or quality of air traffic services.

This is an important distinction. Romania’s airspace has not been closed; flights are not suspended due to ROMATSA, and the institution continues to provide air traffic services.

However, the fact that authorities had to discuss the licence issue in CSAT and that EUROCONTROL has now notified ROMATSA about frozen sums shows how fragile the situation has become.

The Pfizer Dispute Reaches Romanian Air Traffic

The Pfizer case itself comes from Romania’s vaccine procurement obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Romania lost the legal dispute, and Pfizer is now seeking recovery from the Romanian state.

Enforcement through EUROCONTROL makes the case more visible because it affects a strategic sector. What was previously seen as a budgetary and political scandal over vaccine contracts has now reached the financial flows of Romania’s air traffic system.

This does not mean Pfizer is suing ROMATSA. It means the company is enforcing a claim against the Romanian state through a mechanism that affects sums collected for services provided by ROMATSA.

A Crisis of Timing

The timing is what makes the case politically explosive.

First, a Romanian court ruled that ROMATSA’s operating certificate should be suspended for 30 days. Then, while the country was still debating whether such a decision could endanger air traffic and national security, ROMATSA was notified that funds collected through EUROCONTROL had been frozen in the Pfizer enforcement case.

Even if the two cases are not legally connected, they now overlap in public perception.

For the Romanian state, this is no longer only about vaccine contracts or employment disputes. It is about the exposure of critical infrastructure to legal, financial and administrative shocks.

What Happens Next

ROMATSA has announced that it is taking legal steps to protect its interests and to assess available options, including measures in Belgium related to the EUROCONTROL notification.

The Romanian Government is also expected to continue efforts to limit the impact of the Pfizer enforcement while ensuring that ROMATSA’s activity is not disrupted.

The key issue is whether Romania can separate the state’s financial obligations from the operational stability of a critical air traffic institution.

For now, flights continue. But the ROMATSA case has already become one of the most serious institutional scandals in Romania this year: a court ruling questioned its licence, CSAT had to intervene, and now funds connected to its services have been frozen in a billion-lei enforcement procedure.