September 10, 2026
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 10.09.2026, 13:55
VISIT The Commissioner for Equality and for Crisis Preparedness and Management, Hadja Lahbib, is visiting Romania and the Republic of Moldova today and Friday to discuss and promote solidarity and equality. In Bucharest, the official will be meeting the President of Romania, Nicușor Dan, acting Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, members of the parliamentary committees on European affairs, and State Secretary Raed Arafat. Discussions will be focusing on Romania’s significant contribution to European crisis preparedness and civil protection, as well as on challenges regarding equality and non-discrimination. Hadja Lahbib is expected to reiterate the EU’s commitment to promoting equality and fundamental rights as essential building blocks of more resilient, democratic, and inclusive societies across Europe.
FOOD Romania dumps roughly 3 million and half tons of food annually as over 27% of its population runs the gauntlet of poverty and social exclusion, data released by the Federation of Food Banks in Romania say. Only in 2025, the network recovered over 10 thousand tons of products, changed into 20 million helpings for the vulnerable categories. In the first 6 months of 2026, other 85 thousand tons were redistributed by means of the partner NGOs towards thousands of beneficiaries. The figures have been released against the background of celebrating 10 years since the foundation of the first food bank in Romania.
PISA The European Commission is preparing response actions after the recently-published 2025 PISA tests have shown a serious decline in school performances at the Union level. In November, the European Commission’s Vice-President, Romanian Roxana Mînzatu, is expected to present an educational package designed to help the member states, Romania included, to find an answer and revert this negative tendency regarding basic competences. At the PISA tests, Romania ranked last but one in the EU: over half of its 15 year old students cannot reach the basic level in mathematics and 48% of them in reading. In the science section, 46% of the students have fared below the minimum threshold. Regarding mathematics and sciences, the 2025 figures are close to those in 2022. In the reading section they dropped from the previous ranking.
MANIPULATION Romania does not send combat troops to Ukraine and the piece of information that recently appeared online is only alarmist manipulation, the Presidential Administration says in a Facebook post. The institution says the main priority of the Romanian state is the protection and defence of its own citizens. The reaction comes after an administrative decision has been distorted in the public space, a move done, according to the Presidential Administration, with a view to fuelling ungrounded theories about Romania’s being attracted into the conflict. In reality the news was about a Parliament approval requested by the President to participate with maximum 20 servicemen to an operational command in support of Ukraine. The aforementioned structure has only a role of coordination and planning, not of combat and its activity is taking place in France and Britain, thousands of kilometers from the frontline, the Presidential Administration explains.
LAW The President of Romania, Nicusor Dan, has promulgated a law allowing, under exceptional circumstances, the modification of boundaries for certain protected natural areas in order to continue specific hydroelectric projects initiated before June 29, 2007. The legislation supplements the emergency ordinance regarding the regime of protected natural areas and amends the law concerning the environmental impact assessment of public and private projects. The Head of State had challenged this law at the Constitutional Court in November 2025, but the Court rejected the challenge.
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