August 19, 2026 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 19.08.2026, 18:00
Government. The interim government in Bucharest is meeting today in an extraordinary session to approve the 2026–2030 Railway Infrastructure Development Strategy. The focus will be on stopping the technical deterioration of the railways, given that last year nearly 9,800 km of track – over 72 per cent of the infrastructure – required renewal works. At the same time, the aim is to attract a greater number of passengers and transport a larger volume of freight. The funds required for routine repairs and line modernisation exceed 26 billion euros by 2030. According to experts, between 2021 and 2025, only around 46 per cent of the funding required for public railway infrastructure was secured. This underfunding has led to a decline in both the number of passengers choosing to travel by train and the volume of freight transported.
USR. The Political Committee of the USR (Save Romania Union), which is part of Romania’s coalition government, is meeting today to reconfirm Dominic Fritz as the party’s president, in the context of the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling on the Law on the Integrity of Public Officials, but also – as the Union has pointed out – against the backdrop of political attacks launched by the PSD against Dominic Fritz and his party. The Constitutional Court has recently ruled that an amendment tabled at the request of the PSD and the nationalists of the AUR – which strips mayors found to be incompatible or in a conflict of interest of their mandate – is constitutional. USR leader Dominic Fritz is directly affected by this and may lose his position as mayor of Timişoara (in the west), after being found to be in a conflict of interest in June. Whilst the USR leader accuses the authorities of an abuse of power and argues that the law cannot be applied retrospectively, the Social Democrats are calling for the application of the principle that “no one with a criminal conviction should hold public office”.
Inflation. The annual inflation rate in the European Union rose to 3 per cent in July, up from 2.9 per cent in June, and Romania is once again the country with the highest rate, with an annual price increase of 8.2 per cent – according to data published on Wednesday by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat). Last month, the EU member states with the lowest annual inflation rates were Sweden (0.3 per cent), the Czech Republic (1.3 per cent) and Denmark and Hungary (both 1.6 per cent). At the other end of the scale were Romania (8.2 per cent), followed at some distance by Lithuania (5.4 per cent), Cyprus and Bulgaria (both at 4.4 per cent). In Romania’s case, data previously published by the National Institute of Statistics showed that the annual inflation rate had fallen to 8.16 per cent in July, from 10.42 per cent in June. For its part, the National Bank of Romania has revised its inflation forecast for the end of 2026 upwards to 5.5 per cent and anticipates that it will reach 2.9 per cent by the end of 2027.
Fuel. The price of diesel in Romania remains above the psychological threshold of 10 lei ($2.21) per litre, despite a 20 per cent reduction in fuel excise duty, according to the business press in Bucharest. According to analysts, the rise in petroleum product prices has also been caused by the war in neighbouring Ukraine, which has been invaded by Russian troops. Romania imports approximately 63 per cent of its total oil requirements from Kazakhstan, via Russia.
Danube. The Danube’s flow rate at the point of entry into Romania will remain at 1,300 cubic meters per second over the next three days, rising to 1,350 cubic meters by August 25—levels well below the multi-year average for August (almost 4 thousand cubic meters per second)— says a forecast published by the National Institute of Hydrology and Water Management. Danube flow rates, which have dropped to historic lows, led to the shutdown of the two reactors at the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant (southeast), which account for approximately 20% of the country’s energy production. The Ministry of Energy has repeatedly said the National Power System has sufficient resources to cover the production shortfall resulting from the shutdown of Cernavodă Unit 2, including wind power, the coal-fired Rovinari 4 power unit, and hydroelectric generation. Furthermore, the National Power System possesses significant cross-border interconnection capacity—approximately 4,000 MW—enabling electricity imports.
Exercise. Around 1,300 Romanian and foreign military personnel are currently taking part in the EAGLE SPEARHEAD exercise at the “Getica” National Joint Training Centre in Cincu (in central Romania), organised by the NATO Battle Group in Romania. These include military personnel from France, Belgium, Spain and Luxembourg, who form the Battle Group in Cincu, as well as their comrades from Portugal, Romania and Italy. 300 combat vehicles have been deployed for this large-scale exercise. EAGLE SPEARHEAD aims to strengthen joint training, assess the troops’ level of readiness and test their ability to operate effectively in a multinational environment. (MI)
