The civic organization Expert Forum has achieved a synthesis of sanctions the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP) in 2024 and 2025, both for the financing of election campaigns and for political funding.
Photo: Reuters
According to Expert Forum, the data reflects the sanctions already applied by the AEP, but some of the notifications are still in the investigation procedure, so it is possible that the statistics can change easily.
The AEP can apply a fine between 10,000 and 25,000 lei, but certain violations can be sanctioned with 15,000 lei to 50,000, including the use of subsidies for other purposes, not complying with the regulations on loans for political parties, the most important articles on the expenses in the election campaigns, not submitting the income reports and in the amount of 15 days or in 15 days.
The highest sanction is applied for the violation of art 8 (3), if the parties do not comply with the regulations regarding the donations in money with the task of purchasing buildings with the headquarters of the Political Party – from 100,000 lei to 200,000 lei. The fines can be accumulated.
Almost half of the fines applied to the parties
Therefore, from the total value of the fines, 530 thousand lei come from controls related to the presidential elections, 420 thousand from those related to the local elections, and 270 thousand lei represent fines for the parliamentary elections. As a result of the notifications received, the AEP applied fines of 365 thousand lei.
Most were in the amount of 10,000 and 15,000 lei, in number 20, respectively 35 fines. Almost half of the fines were applied directly to the parties, ie 775 thousand lei.
The biggest fines were applied to the party can also to Călin Georgescu. I can have been fined 100 thousand lei for the use of revenues from subsidies from the state budget for destinations other than those provided, respectively for not presenting the information requested within 15 days.
The former canvas was fined 200 thousand lei for the violation of numerous articles, including some related to the source of the funds, the types of materials that can be used and the submission of the income and expense report, respectively of the supporting documents.
The AEP also notified the Police and the General Prosecutor’s Office of Călin Georgescu’s campaign.
In addition, 639 warnings were applied. Most fines of 10,000 lei were applied for presidential, ie 15 out of 20.
In total, the AEP confiscated 19 million lei, of which 16 million for the European Parliament and 2.6 million lei for local ones. 483 thousand lei were confiscated as a result of notifications (without being able to identify the type of elections/fund from the analyzed data).
From this last category, 455 thousand lei are associated with SOS Romania.
The largest amounts were confiscated from gold – 13.6 million lei, PNL – 2.7 million lei, FD (the force of the right) – 1.1 million lei and USR – 485 thousand lei.
What fines Călin Georgescu received
Former candidate for presidential elections, Călin Georgescu, received several fines as follows:
- 50,000 lei – art 28 (1) a) the expenses related to the election campaigns must come only from contributions of the candidates or political formations;
- 25,000 lei – art 36 (3) – The electoral competitors have the obligation to print on the electoral materials the name of the candidate, the economic operator, the CMF and the draw, if applicable.
- 25,000 lei – Art 36 (32) – within 30 days from the date of the conclusion of the election campaign, the electoral competitors have the obligation to send a statement to the description of the online propaganda materials, the production, the period and the space for their broadcasting.
- 50,000 lei – art.47 para. (1) – within 15 days from the date of the elections, the coordinating financial agents are obliged to submit to the APP the detailed reports of the electoral income and the amount of the debts registered as a result of the campaign, accompanied by the statements from art. 28 para. (13).
- 50,000 lei – art. 50 paragraph (2) – The political parties and independent candidates have the obligation to present within 15 days the requested documents.
He received even more warnings as follows:
- 28 paragraph (2) – The collection of electoral contributions and the payment of electoral expenses can only be made through the bank accounts notified in advance.
- 28 para. (6) – The contributions for the election campaign are deposited or transferred to the bank accounts notified only by the candidates, political parties or by their financial agents.
- 28 para. (15) – Contributions for the election campaign can be deposited in the bank accounts notified only until the end of the election campaign.
AEP has confiscated almost 14 million lei from gold
Gold received in total fines of 130,000 lei and amounts of 13,735,990 lei were confiscated, the majority for the 2014 MEPs. Aur only challenged the sanctions for the European Parliamentary elections.
And in the case of PNL, AEP confiscated 2,530,000 lei, based on the same article, art. 7 (2), which states that “The amounts of money that are the subject of the loans received by a political party from a legal person in a year can be up to 500 minimum gross basic salaries in the country, at the value existing on January 1 of that year. ”
A third confiscation case is the one related to the FD, where the AEP confiscated 235,066.44 lei, for MEPs.
In the case of gold, the financial agent SC OMF Accoounting Services SRL was also fined 15,000 lei for non -compliance with the regulations regarding the obligation to declare in 3 days to the agent, respectively to the AEP. A similar sanction was also applied for local elections.
In certain parites, candidates in uneligible places have contributed significant financially to the financing of the MEP campaign, this situation being most commonly encountered, says Expert Forum.
For example, eight candidates in uneligible places have taken loans of over 1.5 million lei each, although their annual revenues according to the declaration of wealth are between 0.1 and 10% of the loan value. This case was also encountered at PNL.
Subsequently, it was discovered that several competitors, including gold, received loans in violation of the law. In the case of gold; Several candidates would have received loans above the limit admitted from Maricel Păcuraru, the owner of Realitatea TV.
PSD received the smallest fines
The National Liberal Party was confiscated 2.5 million lei for MEPs and received a fine of 10,000 lei. Fines also received for parliamentary and local – 20,000 lei, respectively 15,000 lei – to which are added 277 thousand lei confiscated.
At the European Parliament, the party was sanctioned for violating the loan legislation, in parliament for violating the article regarding the destination of the electoral expenses, and at the premises for several violations.
PSD received among the smallest fines – 15,000 lei fines for local and parliament, for violating several articles. Also, AEP confiscated 325 thousand lei for local and 4,279 lei for parliament. The sanctions were not challenged in court.
SOS Romania received fines of 45,000 lei, as a result of notifications. It was confiscated in a total of 479 thousand lei, as a result of the 2 notifications and findings following the controls for local and parliamentary.
Most of the confiscated amount is related to the violation of art 25 (2) “It is forbidden to use income from subsidies from the state budget for any other destinations than those provided in par. (1).”
In the case of a complaint, for which he received a fine of 25 thousand lei and confiscated the amount of 28 thousand lei, AEP found that SOS Romania violated art 11 (1), which establishes that “LThe reception of the donation is obligatory to verify and register the identity of the donor, regardless of its public or confidential character.“SOS did not challenge the reports in court.
The National Conservative Party received a fine of 70,000 lei, to which is added the amount of 6,939.50 lei, which was confiscated, for several violations, including those regarding the way of receiving and spending the funds, not complying the limits of the expenses, as well as the non -observance of the regulation to present within 15 days to the representatives of the authority.
The strength of the right received in total fines of 50,000 lei, of which the largest was 30,000 lei, at the premises. Also at the premises, the AEP confiscated a total of 903 thousand lei for violations related to the way of registering and spending money, violations related to the registration of the financial agent and the non -observance of the destinations for expenses.
At the Parliament of the party, the amount of 235 thousand lei was confiscated and a fine of 10,000 lei was applied for non -compliance with the loans regulations.
USR, the biggest fine at local
The USR received the largest fine in the premises – 45,000 lei, to which are added amounts confiscated by 464,918 lei for violations of the legislation related to the maximum limits of the contributions, the destinations of the expenses and for the use of non -permitted electoral materials.
A fine of 20,000 lei also received in 2025 for violation of the legislation that establishes that the expenses regarding the realization of the electoral propaganda materials are supported exclusively by their beneficiaries.
USR received 3 warnings, for parliament, European Parliament and a control, related to subsidies, to which is added a total confiscated of 20 thousand lei. Following the background control, USR was sanctioned for violating art. 25 para. (2) “It is forbidden to use the income from subsidies from the state budget for any other destinations than those provided in paragraph (1).”
What fines did Nicușor Dan receive
Nicușor Dan received two fines of 20,000 lei, which were not challenged in court. Both controls started from the notifications. The first is linked to the violation of the article that determines what electoral materials can be used in the campaign (36/2).
The second is related to the violation of the legislation regarding the marking of political advertising, the financing of the election campaign by an entity that does not have this right-art. 33 para. (1) – and of art. 36 (2), which establishes what types of electoral propaganda materials can be used.
18 fines have been applied so far according to art. 16 (2) of GEO 1/2025. This refers to the obligation to mark the online electoral materials with certain compulsory information, a mechanism that was criticized for some of the negative effects it had on the public discourse.
According to the law, the violations of some articles are sanctioned with fines between 15,000 and 50,000 lei. In practice, the AEP applied only small fines: 15,000, 20,000 and, in one case, 30,000 lei (for the portal dexonline.ro, accused of election campaign for Nicușor Dan). Nicușor Dan and another candidate (widow Mihai-Constantin) were fined 20,000 lei for several violations. Other candidates received fines of 15,000 lei, and only one of them (Popescu Sebastian-Constantin) challenged the decision.
Of the total reports, only 18 were challenged in court, as seen from the list below. We do not have a statistic regarding the result of these procedures in court.
