October 16, 2025 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Elena Enache, 16.10.2025, 20:00

NATO – The European Commission on Thursday presented the roadmap for European defense, a plan to strengthen the military resources that member states have at their disposal to respond to any threat, mainly from Russia. The document includes four strategic projects: the anti-drone defense initiative, the Eastern Flank Guard, the European Air Shield and the Space Shield. In order to be effective from a military point of view, these plans will be operationally coordinated by NATO on the military side and by the EU on the financial and procurement side. For each of the four components, member states are grouped into procurement and implementation coalitions. Romania is part of the discussions for the anti-drone project, for the Eastern Flank Guard and for the European Air Shield. Member states have several financial instruments at their disposal that can be combined. These are the SAFE funds, from which, in Romania’s case, almost 17 billion euros can be used.

WAGE – Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan does not believe that he will be able to increase the minimum wage next year. The government spokeswoman, Ioana Dogioiu, announced that the PM is currently analyzing this topic and that in principle an increase in income next year is not being considered. She added that the decision will take into account the economic context and the positions expressed by the social partners. Government sources have stated that the topic of increasing the minimum wage could be discussed at the beginning of next week within the National Tripartite Council, which brings together unions, employers and representatives of the Government. PSD, part of the ruling coalition, and the unions support its increase as of January 1, while the business community advocates for maintaining it at the current level of 4,050 lei (796 euros).

CORRUPTION – The Romanian Minister of Defense, Ionuţ Moşteanu, announced that he had submitted the documents for the transfer to the reserve of the head of the Central Military Hospital in Bucharest, Major General Florentina Ioniţă, a suspect in a file investigated by the National Anticorruption Directorate. The decision was made back in June, after the minister was informed by the Control Body about suspicions of corruption and about files being worked on by anti-corruption prosecutors and the Military Prosecutor’s Offices. Her mandate ends this month, after previously benefiting from extensions, although she reached retirement age in 2022. On Thursday, abti-graft prosecutors carried out searches in Bucharest and the neighboring Ilfov county in the file in which the head of the Central Military Hospital is involved. They are investigating suspicions of abuse of office and complicity to abuse of office, acts committed by military medical personnel between 2020 and 2023. Florentina Ioniță-Radu has been heading the Central Military Hospital for 11 years and was even decorated by Romanian presidents in the past.

PENSIONS – The judges of the High Courts of Cassation and Justice have decided to refer the draft law on the payment of private pensions to the Constitutional Court of Romania. The normative act received a decisive vote in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday. According to the document, the beneficiaries of Pillar 2 and Pillar 3 of private pensions will be able to withdraw, when they retire, upon request, only 30% of the accumulated amount. The rest will be paid monthly for a period of 8 years or for life, as a life annuity. Only pensioners with oncological diseases will have the right to withdraw all the money at once, as well as people who have accumulated less than the equivalent of 12 monthly social benefits. The judges of the Supreme Court believe that the limitation of the withdrawal of money violates the right to private property, and that the normative act does not contain transitional norms for contracts already in progress.

EQUIPMENT- Nine NATO member states have so far announced deliveries of military equipment and personnel to contribute to the equipment of Operation Eastern Sentry, intended to additionally protect the countries on the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance, including Romania, from possible incidents with drones or Russian aircraft. All these resources dedicated to Operation Eastern Sentry are in addition to those that the allies already have on the Eastern Flank. (EE)