March 9, 2025 UPDATE
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 09.03.2025, 19:05
Elections. The former Liberal leader Crin Antonescu on Sunday also registered his candidacy for president with the Central Electoral Bureau. He is backed by the three parties in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania. The pro-Russian, anti-West extremist Călin Georgescu and Bucharest’s general mayor Nicuşor Dan had registered on Friday. On Saturday, the Constitutional Court rejected for procedural reasons two motions against Georgescu’s candidacy. Candidacies for the presidential elections of May 4th and 18th may be submitted by Saturday, 15th March. In December last year, the Constitutional Court annulled the entire process to elect the president on grounds that the election process had been corrupted in favour of the independent candidate Călin Georgescu.
Car scrapping. This year’s edition of the car scrapping scheme has been published on the website of the environment ministry for public consultation. To scrap a used vehicle, the applicant benefits from an ecoticket worth around 1,400 euros in the case of a motorcycle, 2,000 euros in the case of a vehicle with thermal or hybrid engine, 2,600 euros in the case of a hybrid plug-in vehicle or electric motorcycle and 5,100 euros for an electric car. The specialist press notes that the amounts are the same as last year, when the value of the tickets decreased, leading to a drop in the number of registrations of electric cars. The Romanian Association of Car Makers and Importers said it disagreed with the new funding guidelines and especially the sums granted in the case of electric cars, arguing that this risks slowing the transition to electric cars even more.
Environment. The Romanian Parliament’s specialist committees will begin talks over the next few days with a view to drafting an environment code. The talks are to also be attended by officials from institutions with responsibilities in the field, business people, representatives of NGOs and academics. According to the authorities, although Romania has over 200 pieces of legislation in the field, it is faced with huge problems in terms of environment protection and needs legislation that can provide concrete solutions.
EU. The United States is still “an ally” of the Europe, despite president Donald Trump’s recent broadsides, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen insisted on Sunday, adding that Europe must now boost its defence efforts, France Presse reports. Donald Trump recently threatened to impose tariffs on Europe, initiated a rapprochement to Russian president Vladimir Putin that Europe and Ukraine find worrying and questioned American protection of Europe as part of NATO. “We are allies, but this means that all allies have to take their responsibilities,” Ursula von der Leyen said. She welcomed the support given by EU heads of state and government for her ReArm Europe plan, which would mobilise up to 800 billion euros for investments in European defence, as requested by the US.
Tennis. Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian on Sunday reached the third round of the WTA 1000 tennis tournament in Indian Wells, the US, worth 9 million dollars in prize money. She defeated Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in three sets. In the next round, Cristian will play Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, seeded 6th. Another Romanian player, Sorana Cîrstea, lost in three sets to 10th seed Emma Navarro of the US.
