January 21, 2026
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 21.01.2026, 13:55
TALKS The future draft of Romania’s budget, which should be ready in mid-February, has today been analyzed by Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and Central Bank governor, Mugur Isarescu. Also today a committee made up of representatives of local administrations belonging to all political parties is holding a new round of talks on the construction of Romania’s state budget this year against the new raised taxes as of January 1. The government in Bucharest plans to endorse the 2026 budget in the second half of next month in a form accepted by all political groups. The Finance Ministry proposes a deficit target towards 6% and an economic growth of 1%. After the draft has been endorsed by the Executive, it will be submitted to Parliament approval. The Prime Minister also plans to submit the reform of the public administration to the Legislature, which is supposed to assume responsibility for it. The reform includes job cuts and reduced expenses.
TENNIS Romania’s tennis player, Gabriela Ruse, on Wednesday secured a first, qualifying for the third round of Australian Open, the year’s Grand Slam tournament, after getting a two-setter against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. She will be fighting for a place in the round of 16 with the winner of the match between tenth-seeded Mirra Andreeva of Russia and Maria Sakkari of Greece. Another Romanian, Sorana Cirstea, will be playing, for a place in the third round, Naomi Osaka of Japan, double winner of the aforementioned competition.
SYSTEM General Alexus Grynkevich, the commander of the United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, has appreciated the US-Romania partnership and underlined the fact that Romania is a staunch ally. NATO’s most important military official has visited together with the Romanian Chief of Staff, General Gheorghita Vlad, the Command of the Multinational Corps South-East, in Sibiu, central Romania as well as the National Training Center ‘Getica’ in Cincu. General Grynkewich has highlighted Romania’s role as a NATO member and has voiced gratitude for Romania’s pledges towards the Alliance. In turn, General Gheorghita Vlad has announced that Romania will soon be having an operational anti-drone system from the United States. The system is presently being tested, but once it becomes operational, it will contribute to the defence of Romania’s airspace.
REQUEST The co-ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) on Wednesday called on all the institutions with attributions in the country’s foreign policy to urgently clarify with the Ukrainian authorities the reasons for which Romania has been left out of the list of countries with which Kyiv has regulated the possibility of having a dual-citizenship agreement. The PSD believes this omission is clearly affecting the Romanian community in Ukraine being profoundly unjust towards all the Romanian ethnics killed in action on the Ukrainian front and also in sharp contrast with the unconditional support Romania has offered during the entire war with Russia, a PSD communiqué says. According to the PSD, such an arbitrary approach from Kyiv can also affect the country’s EU access. Romanians are making the second largest minority in the neighbouring country.
WEATHER Meteorologists have issued new warnings for freezing temperatures in Romania valid until Friday morning. Most affected are expected to be the regions in the country’s north, center and south-east. Concurrently a fresh yellow code warning of sub-zero temperatures for the regions in Romania’s north, the largest part of its center as well as its north-east and north-west is to come into effect as of tonight. Temperatures are expected to plunge to -19 degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest today was -5 degrees.
(bill)
