Romanian air traffic operator ROMATSA gets January 2027 hearing in Pfizer revenue freeze case

The Court of First Instance in Brussels announced that it set January 4 as the trial date for the case concerning Pfizer's request to block the tariffs collected by the Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration (ROMATSA) to recover Romania’s debt over COVID-19 vaccines to the drugmaker. 

As such, the fate of the funds that ROMATSA has to receive from the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) will not be decided before the beginning of next year. Until then, the funds are frozen.

ROMATSA, however, has funds only for a few weeks, so the Romanian government may look to legislative amendments that would allow the continuation of operations, according to News.ro.

"ROMATSA has made a proposal whereby legislation would be changed through a legislative amendment, which could be discussed next week in Parliament. The company's accounts could be funded with the amounts necessary for its operation, at least until the end of August," interim prime minister Ilie Bolojan said at a press conference held at the end of last week.

On June 30, 2026, ROMATSA was notified by Eurocontrol regarding the establishment of a precautionary-executory garnishment measure within enforcement proceedings initiated by Pfizer Romania against the Romanian state. The claimed amount is RON 3.42 billion (principal balance and interest), to which recovery costs of EUR 18.5 million are added.

Both the ROMATSA and the Ministry of Finance have filed appeals for the lifting of the garnishment imposed on the amounts managed through Eurocontrol. 

This is the third time that funds intended for ROMATSA have been affected through the collection mechanism managed by Eurocontrol, following the cases generated by the disputes between brothers Viorel and Ioan Micula and the Romanian state in 2015 and 2019.

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. 

Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defence (CSAT) warned that a possible suspension of ROMATSA's activity would represent a major vulnerability for national security, affecting the surveillance of Romanian airspace and NATO missions on the eastern flank.

In this context, acting defence minister Radu Miruță said that authorities are also examining the possibility that responsibility for airspace control could, if necessary, be taken over by the structures of the Ministry of Defence.

radu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Romatsa) ...