October 1, 2025
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 01.10.2025, 13:55
Budget. The budget adjustment to be approved by the government today will ensure the state’s obligatory payments, namely salaries, pensions, benefits and social and medical services, maintain funding for development and investment projects and guarantee the payment of interest rates on foreign loans, says finance minister Alexandru Nazare. Based on a budget deficit of 8.4%, compared with an initial estimate of 7%, the budget adjustment bill provides for cuts, as well as additional funding for some ministries and public institutions. The ministries of finance, labour, development, agriculture, energy, the environment, the economy, education and justice will see increased budgets, as well as the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Permanent Electoral Authority and the National Sanitary and Veterinary Authority. The ministries of investments, healthcare and home affairs and the Government’s General Secretariat will see their budget slashed. The president’s office said it will return to the state budget some 3.5 million euros of the budget allocated for this year in order to contribute to the collective austerity efforts.
Defence. The defence ministry in Bucharest has requested Parliament’s approval to purchase over 200 latest generation tanks to be produced in Romania. Moreover, dozens of derivative vehicles and machine guns will come into the possession of the Romanian Army by 2040. The value of the purchase amounts to over 7 billion dollars. The first stage of the project took place in 2023 and consisted in the purchase of 54 modernised tanks and a number of complementary vehicles, amounting to some one billion dollars, with an estimated delivery date of 2028. Defence Minister Ionuţ Moşteanu, who recently attended the Warsaw Security Forum said that to build a more secure Europe, the eastern flank must be strong in the face of increasingly frequent incursions of Russian drones and aircraft into Europe’s airspace.
Summit. Romania’s president Nicuşor Dan is today attending the summit of the European Political Community hosted by Denmark, the current holder of the rotating presidency of the European Union Council. The two-day top level meeting in Copenhagen brings together EU member states and a group of partner non-EU states. It will be preceded by an informal meeting of the European Council. The agenda of talks features the conflict in Ukraine following the Russian invasion and Europe’s support for Kyiv, as well as the consolidation of European defence capacities in the context of multiple threats from Russia. Exceptional security measures have been taken ahead of the summit, with Denmark being lately the target of suspicious drone incursions. The measures taken include a ban on civil drone flights until Friday. The European Political Community was created in 2022 at the initiative of France and with the aim to involve in common projects countries from outside of the Union, such as the UK and Turkey, or EU candidate countries, such as the ex-Soviet states Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.
Deficit. Romania is confronted with the highest budget and current account deficits, the Romanian Association of Banks has warned. However, the country is on the right track to fiscal consolidation, said the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, Jeroen Clicq, on Tuesday, after a meeting with the Romanian Prime Minister, Ilie Bolojan. The IMF official said that political stability is needed in order to implement the measures taken by the government and that the Fund supports the continuation of reforms. The Romanian prime minister emphasised that the measures, although much criticised, are instrumental to ensuring fiscal stability and reducing social imbalances and inequalities. An optimistic message was also sent by the country’s President, Nicuşor Dan. He said Romania is close to achieving its deficit target for next year and that the measures already taken by the government would bring the deficit level down from 8.4% this year to around 6.5% in 2026, thus approaching the 6% target Romania has committed to before the European Commission. (CM)
