June 18, 2025
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 18.06.2025, 13:55
Negotiations. The so-called pro-European parties in the Bucharest Parliament – PSD, PNL, USR and UDMR – are resuming negotiations today on measures to reduce the budget deficit and on the distribution of ministries in the next government. PNL leader Ilie Bolojan is likely to be prime minister until 2027, when the post will be taken over by PSD. Bolojan will lead a government with 16 ministries. The Social Democrats would hold seven, the Liberals four, the USR three and the UDMR two. After the appointment of the prime minister, Monday’s hearings of ministers in committees and the vote of investiture for the new executive, as well as the swearing-in are expected to take place. The head of state, Nicușor Dan, has invited all parliamentary parties to consultations on the appointment of the prime minister on Thursday.
Salaries. Acting Education Minister Daniel David said that at the moment there is no question of reducing teachers’ salaries or vacation leave in education and research. He pointed out that in the messages launched by education unionists there are absolutely real things, for which they are right to fight, but also rumors and distorted interpretations. David has promised that, if he remains minister, there will be no reduction in the number of researchers, who are fewer by European standards. Unions in the Romanian education system went on a Japanese strike today, unhappy with recent proposals on some measures to cut budget spending in the system. Their members are opposed to an increase in teaching hours to 8 hours a day, as well as a lowering of the salary threshold for holiday vouchers and food allowance. Education union leaders met on Tuesday with Education Minister Daniel David to whom they told him that they reject any decrease in budgetary spending that could have repercussions on teachers’ incomes. They warned that if today’s protest is treated with indifference and the incoming government implements measures that will affect education workers, they will launch widespread protest actions, including a general strike.
Incident. Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu has confirmed reports that a Romanian diplomat representing the EU was assaulted in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East, in late May during an official trip. The incident was also confirmed by a spokeswoman for the European Commission, as reported in the German publication Spiegel.de. According to her, the event has caused a stir among Western diplomats in Moscow, with the assailants allegedly officials of the Russian security authorities. Minister Hurezeanu avoided confirming FSB involvement in the incident. He said that the diplomat has left the territory of the Russian Federation and is perfectly safe and in full health in Brussels.
Iran. Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu has announced today that 68 Romanian citizens in Iran have expressed their wish to leave the country immediately. The diplomatic mission is in talks with another 30 people, the minister said. At the Romanian Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Romanian Representation Office in Ramallah, 119 people have requested evacuation and repatriation. The missions are maintaining dialog with 279 Romanian citizens who have notified their presence in the area. In the context of the deterioration of the security situation in the Middle East and the closure of airspace in several countries in the region, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is taking steps to grant consular protection to Romanian citizens who have notified their presence in the area and wish to return to their country.
Romsilva. Romania’s Court of Accounts has referred the case of the National Forestry Agency, Romsilva, to criminal prosecution bodies. During an audit mission, the Court uncovered numerous irregularities, including undue payments to employees and the undervaluation of the company’s assets. The limits for salary-related expenditure at Romsilva, set in the budgets approved for previous years, were exceeded. Undue payments amounting to almost 220 million lei (equivalent to about 44 million euro) were made, representing salary entitlements granted to all employees as other than occasional bonuses, without any real substantiation of individual performance. The Court of Auditors also found at Romsilva that an area of more than three million hectares is not reflected in the accounts, and the related assets are shown in the inventory with a value of zero lei.
Inflation. The annual inflation rate in the European Union continued to fall in May to 2.2%, down from 2.4% in the previous month, but Romania is still the country with the highest inflation, with an annual price increase of 5.4%, data released today by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) show. The EU countries with the lowest annual inflation rates last month were Cyprus, France and Ireland. The annual inflation rate rose to 5.45% in May, up from 4.9% in April, according to data recently published by the National Institute of Statistics (NSI). The National Bank of Romania (BNR) has revised its inflation forecast for the end of 2025 upwards to 4.6% from 3.8% previously. (MI)
