June 19, 2026
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 19.06.2026, 13:45
TALKS Sunday is the new deadline set by Romania’s Prime Minister-designate, Adrian Veştea, to submit the ruling programme and the list of ministers in Parliament. He wrote on the Internet about his intention to use this time to build a solid agreement to support the economy and budgetary balance. The group supporting Veştea has challenged in court the decisions through which the majority of the National Liberal Party wants to expel the dissidents. A court in Ilfov, southern Romania, has suspended the decisions made by the party’s leadership. The court’s ruling could temporarily freeze the expulsions planned for the upcoming Liberals’ congress this Sunday. The PNL’s central board has announced it will challenge the court ruling. In another development, the PSD has also postponed for Sunday their formal position on the potential Veştea cabinet, depending on the measures assumed by the Prime Minister-designate.
BRUSSELS Romania’s President, Nicusor Dan, and the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have staged the first session of the coordination group “Friends of Cohesion” at leaders level, before the talks over the MFF multiannual financial framework – the head of the Romanian state has announced on Facebook. According to him, ‘we are going to plead for an ambitious EU budget with enough resources for the cohesion policy and common agricultural policy, as well as for consolidating general competitiveness in the entire Union”. For the 2028-2034 period the European Commission has proposed a multiannual budget of roughly 2,000 billion Euros, which includes an ample reform of the Union’s main funding instruments. The proposal stipulates a 10% cut in the funds destined for the Common Agricultural Policy and the Cohesion Policy, a measure contested by a group of 17 member countries, Romania included. A week ago, the Cypriote presidency of the EU council came up with a new compromise alternative. The document keeps the cuts for agriculture and cohesion. The new proposals stipulate the reduction of the funds destined to economic competitiveness, defence and the Union’s external actions. The future MFF (2028-2034) is also high on the agenda of the summer summit of the European Council currently underway in Brussels.
GOAT PLAGUE The European Commission has banned Romania’s exports of sheep and goat meat to other EU countries by the end of the year, Romania’s interim Agriculture Minister, Tanczos Barna. Brussels decision came after cases of goat plague, also known as PPR, had been reported in Mures county, central Romania, where there is a major risk of spreading the disease. The minister says the measure is very disproportionate according to the existing epidemiological situation and the economic major impact on the sheep-breeding sector in Romania. Barna says that other countries in similar situations aren’t facing such severe measures. He explains that Romania has become the biggest sheep exporter in the EU, with record exports to markets outside bloc.
EXPORTS Romania remains the main export destination for the ex-soviet, Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova, as over 30% of its exports are directed to the market here. The commercial exports between the two countries last year reached roughly 4 billion Euros, 15% more than in 2024 and in the first four months of 2026, the Moldovan exports to Romania rose by 10%. At present, 40% of Moldova’s exports to Romania consist of food products, such as sun-flower seeds, rape-seeds and wine, followed by bakery, oils, canned food, juices and jams. Non-food exports have totaled roughly 600 million Euros and consist of iron bars, furniture and electric cables. The data has been presented during the first edition this year of the ’Export Vision’ programme staged by the Chisinau-based Agency of Investment.
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