Beretta Offers Romania Full Sovereign Production Capacity Under the SAFE Programme

And Calls for a Transparent, Competitive Selection Before European Funds Are Committed

Gardone Val Trompia, 28 April 2026

Fabbrica d’Armi Pietro Beretta S.p.A. — Europe’s oldest and most established small arms manufacturer, with products in service across more than 60 NATO and allied nations — confirms its full commitment to Romania’s individual weapons modernisation programme under the EU SAFE framework. Beretta formally calls on the Romanian Ministry of National Defence to conduct a transparent, competitive and technically rigorous selection process before any procurement decision is made or any European funding is committed.

NINE MONTHS WITHOUT A TRANSPARENT PROCESS
The SAFE Regulation entered into force on 29 May 2025. Romania subsequently obtained an allocation of €16.7 billion in SAFE loans, and adopted Government Emergency Ordinance (OUG) 62/2025 on 20 November 2025 to establish the national legal and procedural framework for implementing the programme. Nine months have now elapsed since the SAFE framework came into force — sufficient time to have conducted a thorough, competitive and comparative evaluation of all available options. Instead, no formal competitive procedure has been initiated. Beretta received Romania’s Request for Information prior to the adoption of OUG 62/2025, which established the specific legal and financial framework governing this procurement. Since OUG 62/2025 came into force, the Company has received no further direct communication from the competent
Romanian authorities — nor has it been formally informed through Italian institutional channels. This silence is not only procedurally anomalous: OUG 62/2025 itself, alongside the EU SAFE Regulation, explicitly requires that acquisitions financed under this framework be
conducted through transparent, competitive and technically grounded procedures. Those obligations have not been met.

As a consequence, Beretta’s proposal has been developed without access to the final technical and regulatory requirements established under OUG 62/2025, and cannot be considered complete. Evaluating it in its current form — or proceeding toward a procurement decision without allowing a full submission — would be incompatible with the principles of transparency, proportionality and equal treatment mandated both by OUG 62/2025 and by the EU SAFE Regulation (EU) 2025/1106.

Beretta formally requests that the Romanian authorities provide the complete specifications established under OUG 62/2025 and allow all interested European manufacturers to submit comprehensive technical and industrial proposals before any assessment is conducted.

Find the FULL Press Release here  Beretta Romania SAFE 280426