Retired General Virgil Bălăceanu, former representative of Romania at NATO Command, says that Romania is extremely delayed in adopting legislation to meet the needs of rebuilding the reserve of the Romanian Army based on the principles of voluntarism, and if the „legislative problem” is not resolved, then conscription will be reintroduced.
“The law for preparing the population for defense has been delayed for almost three years in reaching Parliament, so there is a political orientation that we must take into account in Romania, which states that the only solution is the reintroduction of mandatory military service,” stated General (r) Virgil Bălăceanu for News.ro.
He believes that politically delayed or poorly thought-out decisions, especially those delayed and unacknowledged by the political class, "ultimately reflect on the Romanian people."
“I don't know how prepared young people are currently for mandatory military service, in fact, Romania itself. Why? Because, you see, the law for preparing the population for defense is delayed so much, and at some point, there is a kind of ping-pong between the Parliament, the Government, and the ministries that need to give approvals for that respective law, etc. It's incredible what is happening in Romania and unfortunately, it's happening right now,” stated Bălăceanu.
The General says that the Army still needs to respond to "certain political demands" in a "very turbulent state."
“We haven't decided what to do because we have two poles - the sovereigntist or nationalist pole, as I call it, advocating for the reintroduction of mandatory military service, and the Euro-Atlantic pole which supports, but has acted inefficiently and incompletely in legislative terms, the voluntary reserve service,” the general affirmed.
According to him, for the "rebuilding of the reserve," the law for preparing the population for defense that develops voluntary military service must be approved as quickly as possible.
“We need to replace those who completed military service in 2007 because they will soon be removed from military records. Attention must also be given to how defense legislation is applied, and here the groundwork must be properly laid.
If we introduce voluntary soldier service, we need a campaign, including through media participation, to understand the need for this initiative and the advantages of this service.
Ultimately, the Ministry of Defense must have a marketing policy, and when it has done so, it has been very successful, for example, through a decision by the previous Defense chief, to have recruitment and selection of professional soldiers done by military units, and this year almost 90% of the positions advertised were filled,” explained Bălăceanu.
The General believes that the same must be done regarding the reserve of the Romanian Army.
“When the Ministry of Defense talks to us, society, about the objectives it has set regarding the capabilities of the Army, it must always inform us about both active forces and reserve forces, as the Romanian Army must be prepared in a deterrent role to keep the war as far away from our country's borders as possible,” the general stated.
Virgil Bălăceanu warned that if the "legislative issue" is not resolved and if a "promotion campaign" is not carried out for rebuilding the reserve of the Romanian Army based on voluntarism, then mandatory military service will have to be reintroduced.
In early autumn 2024, the Law on preparing the population for defense and other laws regarding national defense were either in progress at the Ministry of National Defense or sent for approval to various institutions, including the Government. In any case, representatives from the MoD were skeptical that these laws, including the one on preparing the population for defense, could be approved before the elections at the end of last year.