December 11, 2025
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 11.12.2025, 13:55
Court of Appeal – “Accusations like ‘the defendants are let off without a conviction’ are not true,” said the head of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Liana Arsenie, on Thursday, during the institution’s first extraordinary press conference, organized following the revelations in the Recorder documentary ‘Justice Captured’. The Recorder investigation features several prosecutors and judges, some with protected identities, who reveal how the leadership of the Bucharest Court of Appeal allegedly changed judges from panels in order to obtain favorable decisions for individuals accused of corruption. “It is a concerted attack on the judiciary,” “we have evidence that refutes the accusations,” said the head of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, who brought the files before journalists. A judge from the Bucharest Court of Appeal intervened in the press conference convened by the leadership of this court and declared that everything one of her colleagues said in the Recorder documentary is true. ‘The management is not helping us in any way. We are simply being terrorized with disciplinary actions, said Judge Raluca Moroşanu. The documentary brought hundreds of protesters to the headquarters of the Superior Council of Magistracy in Bucharest on Wednesday evening. They demanded the resignation of the Interior Minister, Cătălin Predoiu, former Justice Minister, of the head of the Supreme Court, Lia Savonea, and of the leadership of the Superior Council of Magistracy. The Justice Minister, Radu Marinescu, said that any political interference in the judicial process is absolutely unacceptable and that the institution he leads is open to any reform within its competence.
Conference – The Romanian President Nicușor Dan is participating today, via videoconference, in the ”Coalition of the Willing” meeting of European leaders supporting Ukraine. The states represented are offering military aid to Kyiv and are willing to provide it, in one form or another, with security guarantees after the end of the war with Russia. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenski, also confirmed his participation in today’s meeting via videoconference. The French President Emmanuel Macron, together with other European leaders, had a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to try to advance the peace plan for Ukraine that he proposed. European leaders, including Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, are set to meet in Berlin on Monday to discuss the situation in Ukraine and the peace plan proposed by the US.
Defense – The head of the four-party government in Bucharest, the liberal Ilie Bolojan, has announced that he has agreed with the Save Romania Union (USR) president, Dominic Fritz, that, by the end of next week, his party will come up with a proposal for the Defense Ministry. In a televised interview, the prime minister said that the person to be proposed must be someone with a professional background that shows qualification, so that the field can be managed as efficiently as possible. The previous minister, Ionuţ Moşteanu, resigned from his position two weeks ago, after the press found that he had falsified his CV, in which he listed a university degree that he did not have. The acting Defense Minister is the Economy Minister, Radu Miruţă, also from Save Romania Union.
Pensions – The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) has postponed until the end of the year the decision on notifying the Supreme Court on the law on the retirement of magistrates. However, the CCR has made a decision in the case of the law with fiscal measures, recently corrected in Parliament and contested by the Alliance for the Union of Romanians. This is the document based on which, starting with January 1 2026, taxes on housing and cars, on dividends and on earnings from crypto-currency transactions will be increased.
OMV – Royalties for oil and gas extracted by the Austrian company OMV Petrom on the licenses taken over during privatization will increase by 40%, which will ensure Romania a fair share of the exploitation of its resources – claims a statement from the Romanian government. Also, Romania will no longer pay OMV Petrom the cost of closing wells that are no longer used and the penalties for debts that arose from various litigations. An agreement in principle for the next 15 years was established between the two parties, through a memorandum, through which the government states that it has managed, after 20 years since the signing of the initial contract, to rebalance cooperation with OMV Petrom. In all its activity, OMV Petrom will take into account the national interests of Romania and the interests of Romanian consumers, respecting the principles regarding competition within the framework of national and European Union legislation – the cited source also states. (LS)
