January 30, 2026 UPDATE

The latest news from RRI

Newsroom, 30.01.2026, 20:00

Court – On Friday the Bucharest Court of Appeal again postponed ruling on the request filed by a lawyer of the opposition Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) regarding the suspension from office of two judges of the Constitutional Court. The lawyer claims that the respective magistrates do not meet one of the conditions for being appointed as a judge of the Constitutional Court, namely at least 18 years of experience in legal activity or in higher legal education. In the case of one of the judges, a decision made last year by the Constitutional Court established that his appointment was constitutional, and the decisions of the Constitutional Court cannot be annulled by the courts. The case of the second is more complicated, because he worked as a university professor at the Faculty of Law for only approximately 3 years and 4 months. The representative of the Presidential Administration, who proposed him, requested the rejection of the appeal filed by the AUR lawyer, on the grounds that her request was filed late.

Tourism – Romania will be promoted in 2026 at some of the most important tourism fairs in the world, after the Ministry of Economy, Digitalization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism approved the list of exhibitions in which the country will participate with a national stand. The list includes reference tourism fairs, organized in target markets with high potential and major impact on tourist flows. These include the fairs in Chişinău, Berlin, Paris, Almaty, Frankfurt, Shanghai, Dubai, Warsaw, Rimini, London and Barcelona.

Government – The Romanian Government met on Friday to discuss an agenda which included a series of draft laws. The executive approved the update of the specific normative framework for the protection of assets belonging to the national movable cultural heritage with the aim of ensuring the international promotion of cultural heritage and improving the regime for the protection of the national movable cultural heritage. Also the government approved an ordinance on the reform in the healthcare field which places telemedicine in a functional, clear and coherent legal framework, with its application to be detailed through subsequent laws. Also on Friday, the Government amended, by a decision, the conditions for making pyrotechnic articles available on the market, drastically reducing access to those that can cause accidents.

Visit – The Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Ţoiu received Thomas Byrne, the Irish Minister of State for European Affairs and Defense, on the occasion of his visit to Romania, it was announced on Friday in Bucharest. Oana Ţoiu welcomed the solid level of the Romanian-Irish bilateral relationship and evoked the common positions and interests of Romania and Ireland within the European Union, including in the context of the start of preparations for Ireland’s taking over the future presidency of the EU Council, on 1 July 2026. The two interlocutors underlined the importance of consolidating the European project and maintaining the unity of the member states, emphasizing the need to strengthen the resilience of the European Union in the current international climate marked by multiple challenges.

Unemployment – Romania’s unemployment rate was around 6% in December 2025, the same as in November, data released by the National Statistics Institute shows. Out of the almost 494 thousand people registered by the National Agency for Employment, two thirds are in the 25-74 age bracket, which has an unemployment rate of 4.6%, under the country average. Roughly 27% of the young people with ages up to 24 years do not have a job. The unemployment rate in Bucharest has continued its downward trend reaching 0.47%.

Promotion – Romania has begun a promotional tour in the world’s capitals, through screenings and cultural events organized by British writer and producer Charlie Ottley, with the support of government structures in Bucharest. Screenings of the documentary “Flavours of Romania” in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Chile, Peru, Colombia and the United Kingdom are followed by presentations and question and answer sessions, with the aim of presenting the beauty and diversity of Romania to an international audience. (LS)