THE WEEK IN REVIEW August 23 – 29, 2026

A look at the headline-making events this past week

Ştefan Stoica, 29.08.2026, 14:00

The unified salary law: a major failure

Romania’s Deputies Wednesday endorsed the bill on the operational and financial closure of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Although the Romanian government should have implemented the reforms included in this plan without needing any rewards or financial incentives from the European Union, Romania still failed to complete them all.

One such case is the bill on the unified public sector salary law, for the endorsement of which Romania had more than 4 years, and which proved to be a complete failure as it was turned into a political battleground.

President Nicuşor Dan, who tried in recent months to mediate between parliamentary parties, announced the official failure of the negotiations and the loss of the EUR 770 million tied to this milestone. This critical reform for the entire public sector should not have been postponed for years, since 2022, the head of state said, but he refrained from saying that during this entire period the labour ministry had been run by the Social Democrats, and suggested instead that political responsibility for the fiasco was evenly shared by the ruling parties.

In May, after the coalition Cabinet comprising the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, Save Romania Union and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania was dismissed, Mr. Dan voiced optimism that the reforms in the recovery and resilience facility would not be compromised.

The integrity law: a major constitutional and moral failure?

The Senate passed the amendments to the Integrity Bill received from the Chamber of Deputies, also a milestone in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, with a deadline on August 31.

The law introduces public files on financial interests, which will replace declarations of assets and interests. These files will no longer contain all the data in the declarations of civil servants.

Lawmakers kept in a controversial amendment introduced by the Social Democrats and AUR party (the ultra-nationalist opposition) which stipulates that elected officials found to be in a state of incompatibility or conflict of interest even prior to the law lose their office.

The famous victim of this amendment already validated by the Constitutional Court, is the mayor of Timişoara and leader of Save Romania Union (USR), Dominic Fritz. His party voted against the new rule, which according to the leader of USR Senators Sorin Şipoş allows a parliamentary majority to interfere retroactively with an office won by vote.

Even the National Liberal Party, USR’s partner in government, voted in favour, although admitting that the provision, which changes the rules during the game, is immoral and unfair. But the stakes relate primarily to Romania and the money it could lose, the Liberals argued, and voted in favor of the law alongside the Social Democrats and AUR.

The European People’s Party and Renew Europe had previously warned the European Commission that the amendment was specifically written against the mayor of Timisoara and amounted to unconstitutional retroactivity and political lawfare. Moreover, it clashed with EU law, since Dominic Fritz is a German citizen elected in Romania based on the rights provided for by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

35 years of independence for the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine

This week, on August 24 and 27 respectively, two states neighbouring Romania, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, celebrated 35 years of independence.

President Nicuşor Dan did not attend Monday’s ceremonies in Kyiv, but he took part online in the meeting of the Coalition of the Willing.

“It was a welcome opportunity to reaffirm our full support for Ukraine and we continued discussions on finalizing a robust framework of security guarantees,” he posted on X.

On Thursday, Mr. Dan and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky were received by president Maia Sandu for the celebrations of Moldova’s Independence Day. The 3 countries will continue cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, energy and security, including in preventing drone attacks, president Dan said after the trilateral meeting in Chisinau.

The Republic of Moldova is lucky to have neighbours like Romania and Ukraine, Maia Sandu said.

Communist-era secret police scandal in Bucharest

The latest major scandal in Romania centers on the longest-serving head of secret service in Romania, Lucian Pahonţu, who has been running the Protection and Guard Service (SPP) for over two decades.

Recorder, an investigative journalism outlet, said this week that he was part of the forces sent by Nicolae Ceaușescu to suppress the protests that had broken out in Bucharest on the afternoon of December 21, 1989. According to documents found by Recorder, Pahonțu was present that night at the Intercontinental Hotel in the heart of the capital city, where armed troops killed 48 people and arrested hundreds of protesters.

He was also allegedly involved in the events of June 13, 1990, when hundreds of people were beaten and arrested by the police in University Square in Bucharest. Asked in Chisinau whether Pahonțu should be replaced, Nicușor Dan dismissed the allegations, claiming the SPP chief did not take part in the crackdown on protesters either during the 1989 Revolution or afterwards.

Incident in the Black Sea

A commercial ship caught fire on Thursday evening in Romania’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone. Twelve crew members were on board, one of whom was seriously injured. All of them were rescued by the Coast Guard.

According to official sources, the ship was sailing under the flag of the Dominican Republic.

The president welcomed the intervention and announced the incident would be investigated. He also said the ship had been hit, but details are yet unknown.

If an attack is confirmed, this will have been the most serious incident related to the conflict in Ukraine to take place on the Romanian coast this week; one during which drones, some of them carrying explosives, and drone fragments were discovered daily, including on ​​tourist beaches. (AMP)