December 20, 2025
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 20.12.2025, 14:24
ECONOMY Romania has submitted in Brussels the fourth payment request under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, totaling over EUR 2.62 billion, the minister of investments and European projects Dragoş Pîslaru announced. The set contains 62 targets and milestones exclusively in the non-reimbursable funding component. According to the minister, the implementation of the Plan is one of Romania’s most important projects, critical to the development of the national economy in several respects, including infrastructure, healthcare, education, environment, digitisation, culture, energy and energy efficiency. Some of the institutions that will receive money are the environment, energy, justice, finance, healthcare and labour ministries. The projects included in the fourth payment request include the revamping of 13 dams and improving flood protection, the listing of up to 15% of the shares of Hidroelectrica, the main electricity producer in Romania, the digitisation of the judicial system and a comprehensive fiscal reform. The European Commission is to provide a response within 60 days.
REVOLUTION The sirens of freedom rang out in Timişoara on Saturday to mark 36 years since the declaration of the first city free from communism in Romania on December 20, 1989. At that time, workers from all industrial platforms went on an all-out strike and occupied the city centre, which they did not leave until the dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu fled. In the days that followed, the anti-communist Revolution spread to Bucharest and throughout the country, and culminated on December 22 with the flight from power of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu. Three days later, the two were executed, following a summary trial by a military court. In total, over 1,000 people died and about 3,000 were wounded in the clashes that took place in the only country in Eastern Europe where the regime change was violent.
WAGES The Romanian ministry of labour has posted for public review a draft resolution on a 6.8% increase in the gross minimum wages, from about EUR 800 to roughly EUR 865 per month, as of July 1 next year. The ministry expects the increase to have positive effects at a social level, by encouraging employment, increasing people’s spending power and reducing undeclared work. Over 1.7 million employees will benefit from this measure. The minimum wage increase as of mid-2026 is however criticized by both employees and employers. Trade unionists want the measure taken in January, and emphasise that prices and taxes have increased, while working conditions are getting worse. Thousands of trade unionists from four confederations picketed the Presidency offices the past few days, asking president Nicuşor Dan to mediate between the unions and the government. In turn, employers argue that the increase is not at all appropriate in the current economic context.
AMBASSADOR Darryl Nirenberg, officially nominated seven months ago by the US president Donald Trump for ambassador to Romania, was confirmed on Friday by a vote of the US Senate. At the Senate hearing last month, he said that Romania is a key ally within NATO, has a strategic position on the Black Sea and offers great opportunities for American companies, especially in the energy sector. Darryl Nirenberg also told the US Senators that relationships with Bucharest have never been more important. He pledged to work to deepen the military and security partnership and to strengthen trade and investment relations with Romania. The US Ambassador to Bucharest Kathleen Kavalec retired in May, and the deputy chief of mission, Michael Dickerson, acted as interim chargé d’affaires within the Embassy.
UKRAINE US and Russian negotiators meet in Miami, Florida on Saturday as part of continued diplomatic efforts to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine. According to the BBC, the US team met with their Ukrainian counterparts on Friday. Ukraine’s chief negotiator said he was still pushing for long-term security guarantees. Meanwhile, the BBC notes, the US secretary of state has dismissed claims that Washington is trying to force Ukraine into a peace deal. The meetings come after talks in Berlin on Sunday and Monday, in which the US 28-point peace plan put forward last month was revised. (AMP)
