July 26-31

A look at the headline-making events this past week

Daniela Budu, 01.08.2026, 14:00

Bills adopted by the Parliament in Bucharest

This week, the Parliament in Bucharest continued its debates and voting on key bills under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which must be adopted by 31 August to avoid losing the programme’s European funding. The Chamber of Deputies and then the Senate, as the decision-making body, adopted the bill on decarbonisation and the code on spatial planning, urban planning and construction. The SAFE agreement, which provides access to nearly 17 billion Euro in European funds for investment in defence and strategic infrastructure, was also passed by the Senate. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Chamber of Deputies, acting as the decision-making body, adopted the draft law providing for a temporary and gradual reduction in the excise duty on diesel. The measure will apply for three months, with the possibility of successive extensions, and was supported by all parliamentary groups, with the aim of reducing prices at gas stations. The average price of a litre of diesel in Romania reached the psychological threshold of 10 lei at the start of the week – the equivalent of approximately 2 euros – whilst petrol was selling on average at 9.13 lei per litre, around 1.8 euros. In a telephone conversation on Wednesday with his Kazakh counterpart, Oljas Bektenov, acting Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan emphasised that Romania has a direct interest in the uninterrupted operation of the Caspian Pipeline, given that the Petromidia refinery (the largest in Romania – ed.) processes a significant proportion of the crude oil from Kazakhstan via this pipeline. The Caspian Pipeline transports Kazakh crude oil to the Black Sea via the Russian terminal at Novorossiysk. Last week, however, Kazakhstan was forced to temporarily suspend deliveries due to Ukrainian attacks on Russian ships and infrastructure.

Healthcare Strike

There was a three-day general strike across the Romanian healthcare system. Only emergency services and a small proportion of other departments’ activities were kept functioning. Thousands of doctors, nurses and other staff at hundreds of hospitals across the country are unhappy about the acute staff shortages, as well as the draft law on a unified pay scale for public sector staff, which they say will reduce employees’ incomes. The Sanitas Federation announced on Friday that it had suspended the general strike until a new draft bill on the pay of staff funded from public funds was presented. In a post on social media, Sanitas states that the strike has achieved its first objective, which was to raise awareness of the reality within the public health and social care systems. In this context, the interim government in Bucharest has approved the creation of over 6,850 new posts in the health sector, most of them for doctors, nurses and support staff.

Anti-drone system at the Port of Constanța

Two Triton-type systems have become operational in Romania, at the Black Sea Port of Constanța. The deployment of these two state-of-the-art systems aims to identify the most effective solutions for protecting port infrastructure and to enhance the capacity to respond to potential security risks. The installation follows an incident on 5 June, when a Ukrainian maritime drone – control of which had been lost due to Russian jamming – self-destructed in the vicinity of the Port of Constanța. Due to the war in the neighbouring country, Russian aerial drones have also violated Romanian airspace on dozens of occasions. Last weekend alone, three drones were shot down on three consecutive days by F-16s of the Romanian Air Force. The Russian ambassador to Bucharest was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Monday, with the Romanian side lodging a firm protest against what it called “illegal and irresponsible actions”. Moscow rejected the accusations. Against this backdrop, the Romanian company Oves Enterprise and one of Ukraine’s largest drone manufacturers, Edrone, signed a strategic partnership this week, laying the foundations for the joint production of military drones in Romania, in Cluj-Napoca (north-west).

Severe drought on the Danube

There is a severe drought throughout the Danube river basin. In Romania, the river’s flow rate is three times lower than the seasonal average, and experts say that in the coming days it will fall to a level very close to the historic low recorded in 1985, which stood at 1,400 cubic metres per second at the river’s entry into the country. Energy production, navigation, agriculture and tourism are being severely affected. Due to the extremely low level of the Danube, Unit 1 of the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Station was shut down in a controlled manner on Tuesday and disconnected from the national power grid, and the possibility of shutting down Unit 2 was also discussed. The Ministry of Energy has given assurances that the electricity supply to domestic consumers and businesses will not be affected. The two units generate, on average, around 20 per cent of the total electricity consumed in Romania.

Moldova’s new prime minister on a visit to Bucharest

Romania will continue to be the Republic of Moldova’s main supporter within the European Union, drawing on the experience it has gained as a Member State, said Acting Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan on Thursday following talks with the Republic of Moldova’s new prime minister, Vasile Tofan, who paid an official visit to Bucharest. For his part, his Moldovan counterpart emphasised that Romania is the Republic of Moldova’s main strategic partner. Regarding the situation on the border between the two countries, Vasile Tofan stated that support for Ukraine was also a direct investment in the security of the Republic of Moldova and the entire region, adding that the violation of a sovereign state’s airspace was ‘unacceptable’. President Nicușor Dan also reaffirmed, during his meeting with the new Moldovan Prime Minister, Romania’s ‘firm’ and ‘consistent’ support for Chișinău’s European path and welcomed the opening of the first negotiation clusters for the Republic of Moldova’s accession to the EU. Vasile Tofan expressed his gratitude for the constant and unconditional support provided by Bucharest. (MI)