August 11, 2026 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 11.08.2026, 20:45
PLANT Unit 2 of the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Romania will be shut down within the next 48 hours, the Romanian Waters National Administration announced, after the Danube’s water level dropped below the critical safety threshold of minus 230 cm. At the same time, the river’s flow rate at the country’s border has reached a record low of just 1,370 cubic meters per second, and no precipitation is forecast for the Danube basin over the next week. On Monday, the interim government in Bucharest allocated about 1 million Euros for works on the Danube aimed at ensuring the water flow needed to operate Reactor 2 of the power plant, the only one currently in operation, which provides about 10% of the country’s energy needs but must be temporarily shut down due to current conditions. The funds are earmarked for urgent dredging works on the river and the temporary redistribution of water flow at the junction of the Bala and Dunărea Veche branches; riverbed deepening operations are planned in two critical areas, from which approximately 100,000 cubic meters of material will be extracted. Even if the plant is shut down, work will continue to allow the reactor to resume operations a few days earlier, once the Danube’s water level begins to rise. Through its spokesperson, the European Commission has announced it is closely monitoring the security of electricity supplies in Romania, Hungary and south-eastern Europe.
ENERGY Romania has called on the European Commission to assess the available energy output capabilities and cross-border interconnection, the level of the balance reserves as well as the power-production capabilities of the neighbouring countries to provide assistance in case the situation at regional level continues to deteriorate. The request was made by the State Secretary with the Energy Ministry, Cristian Buşoi during an online session of the EU Working Group on Electricity, the bloc’s coordination structure in the field. He presented the situation in Romania as well as the legislative measures taken by the government to handle the situation. Bucharest activated the early warning mechanism against the latest regional developments as early as Friday, and brought it to the next notch ‘crisis situation’ on Monday evening, according to the European regulations, Cristian Buşoi says.
SESSION The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest convened in a new special session on Tuesday, its third this summer. For two days the MPs are debating upon the pending legislative projects already endorsed by the Senate. On Tuesday, the Chamber’s Legal Committee gave the green light to a bill on completing the Administrative Code, which sets up a mechanism through which the transactions involving state properties or transactions whose value is above 100 thousand Euros will have to be approved through a government decision. Another document on the agenda involves measures of financial support for people with disabilities, integrating them into the community life without being institutionalized, such as a monthly stipend to cover their household expenses and public utilities as well as a transition benefit after they have left the specialized centers and settled in the new household. Another bill currently under consideration by lawmakers establishes, among other things, an increase from 40% to 60% in the partial payments made in response to reimbursement claims submitted by electricity and natural gas providers under the cap-and-compensation schemes.
LAW President Nicușor Dan filed a challenge with the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) against the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Legislative Acts in the Field of Integrity. The petition, posted on the website of the Presidential Administration in Bucharest, states that, due to its substantive provisions, the law was adopted in violation of certain constitutional provisions. Among these are the provision mandating the retroactive application of penalties and the provision extending the obligation to declare assets to include life partners, not just the spouses of public officials. Another contested point concerns the three-year ban on holding public office if a person is definitively found to be in a state of incompatibility or conflict of interest. The law, passed last week by Parliament, has already been challenged by the PNL and USR before the Constitutional Court. Nicușor Dan challenged the law recently adopted by Parliament, arguing that, although updating integrity legislation is necessary and represents a commitment undertaken by Romania through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), some of the new provisions are arbitrary and violate the Constitution.
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