Bucharest mayor calls for STB insolvency as debts surpass 80% of city budget, convenes emergency council meeting

Financial collapse

Bucharest's public transport operator STB is in a "disastrous" financial state, Mayor Ciprian Ciucu said on Monday. In 2025, the company needed 5.6 billion lei to cover operations, debt repayments and penalties, a sum equal to the entire annual budget of the city. Monthly, STB's debt is two to three times larger than the payments made by the City Hall, Ciucu added. STB's debt to the tax authority ANAF alone stands at 1.5 billion lei, of which 400 million lei are penalties. Overall, penalties across all creditors have surpassed 1 billion lei.

The cumulative cost of the transport service for a single year, together with debts and related penalties, exceeds 80% of the annual budget of the Bucharest City Hall.

The mayor warned that without intervention, STB would drag the entire city into insolvency, as creditors have repeatedly sought to seize the company's accounts, which could paralyse surface transport.

Root causes

Ciucu identified four main reasons for the crisis. First, from 2020, employee social contributions to ANAF were no longer paid, accumulating over 1 billion lei in principal and generating penalties. Second, in 2019, 22 municipal companies were created and capitalised with funds taken from STB, many of which later proved unviable. Third, defective management driven by politicisation and a lack of efficiency. Fourth, a fear of unions that blocked necessary corrective measures.

An additional blow came from a cancelled tender for 40 trams. The 2019-2020 procurement was awarded to VFU Pașcani, but the contract was never signed after then-mayor Nicușor Dan's control body found irregularities and referred the case to the anti-corruption directorate. STB later cancelled the tender, but the company won in court, resulting in penalties of around 1 billion lei.

Insolvency as a shield

The mayor stressed that insolvency is not bankruptcy but a legal restructuring mechanism. Under a court-supervised plan, STB could continue operating, protect employee salaries, and stop the accumulation of further penalties. A significant portion of the debt could be written off if the judge approves the reorganisation plan.

Only this way can we protect STB, only if it enters insolvency, from accumulating additional penalties. Otherwise they will keep flowing and growing.

Ciucu said he had asked management and unions since February to agree on a joint efficiency plan, but received no concrete response.

Political process

Ciucu called on the STB Board of Directors to meet on Tuesday morning and request insolvency. He also convened an emergency meeting of the General Council for Tuesday at 12:00 to grant an express mandate to the STB General Assembly of Shareholders (AGA) to recommend the opening of insolvency proceedings.

I don't want STB's insolvency. Many politicians avoid even uttering this word. But I have concluded it is the only responsible measure to save the company from bankruptcy, protect employees' salaries, and stop the accumulation of ever larger penalties, as well as exit from incorrect contracts lacking economic logic.

The mayor said he would ask political party representatives to support the measure, noting that the decision rests with the Board of Directors, not the mayor's office. The service will continue, but without insolvency it will eventually go straight to bankruptcy, he warned.