June 4, 2026 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 04.06.2026, 20:02
NOMINATION Romania’s president, Nicusor Dan, has nominated the presidential adviser, Eugen Tomac, for the position of Prime Minister. A Romanian MEP, Tomac has been serving as honorary adviser for the presidency’s relation with the Romanians all over the world since October 6, 2025. The Romanian president said that as the Parliamentarian parties failed to reach an agreement, the only solution is that of an independent Prime Minister to rule Romania in the direction the Romanians want, namely a pro-Western direction, the completion of the PNRR and the budget on 2027. “I have chosen a person who is independent from the political parties, but who has the necessary expertise to talk to the parties because what we need is consensus and political expertise. I am waiting for the same responsibility from the political parties” Nicuşor Dan says. In turn, the designated Prime Minister says he will go before the Legislature with a team of experts not with a political government. “I understand perfectly the difficult context we are having now, I know the Romanians’ expectations and I am aware of the challenges we must overcome together. I assume this mission in good faith, to propose the country a professional governmental team ready to work for the citizens. I am willing to find a sincere dialogue in Parliament, for the investment of a government with a single agenda – the welfare of the Romanians,” Eugen Tomac says. Under the Constitution, Tomac has 10 days to present his ruling programme and propose ministers. After this period, he will go to Parliament for the confidence vote of the senators and MPs convened in a joint session.
SAFE Romania’s Constitutional Court on Thursday turned down the opposition’s notification concerning the law under which Romania is implementing the Security Action for Europe programme, known as SAFE. The ruling has been made with a majority of votes. The non-constitutionality objection was filed by several members of some Parliamentary groups in the Chamber of Deputies and by non-affiliated deputies. The Senate in Bucharest endorsed the draft with a series of amendments proposed by the government on May 26th. The amendments are focusing on the way European money is divided between the institutions in the national security system. At the same time, the amendments allow those institutions to conclude financial agreements within 30 days since the loan agreement was signed and not since its endorsement, as the present legislation stipulates.
PROTESTS In Romania, the National Trade Union Bloc is calling for the immediate withdrawal of the draft public sector pay law, which it claims is a reform developed in a non-transparent manner, without real data, and contrary to the principles of fairness. The nationally representative trade union confederation states in a press release that, in its current form, the bill does not constitute a reform but rather a reproduction of existing imbalances, with the risk of exacerbating them and generating new structural inequities throughout the public sector. The National Trade Union Bloc is calling on the government, among other things, to issue firm provisions requiring central and local public institutions to transparently report to the Ministry of Labor the job classifications for all public sector employees, as well as their current salaries and the full structure of their pay scales. New protests against the draft law on public sector salaries in Romania took place on Thursday, this time at the Ministry of Finance, the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF), and the Ministry of Justice. The legislation must be adopted by Parliament by the end of August to avoid losing a tranche of funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) worth approximately 700 million euros.
PNRR The absorption rate of PNRR funds in Romania has now exceeded 60%, and on Friday, the ECOFIN Council (comprising the ministers of economy and finance from European Union member states) could give the final approval to payment request number 4, announced Dragoş Pîslaru, acting minister of investments and European projects in the Bucharest government. He says that, in the coming period, 3 billion euros will enter the country, and Romania is close to finalizing negotiations with the European Commission on the latest amendment to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Pîslaru also stated that the main objective is to fully secure non-reimbursable European funds by redirecting funding toward projects that are at an advanced stage of implementation.
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