March 28, 2025
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 28.03.2025, 13:55
A roundup of local and international news.
EXERCISE – The National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM), coordinator of digital services in Romania, held on Thursday, an exercise to test the capacity to respond to challenges that may emerge in the online environment, in view of the presidential elections in May. Representatives of national authorities, the European Commission, major online platforms and civil society participated in the exercise. In another development, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu criticized the recent decision of the National Audiovisual Council in Bucharest to remove videos by some journalists, seeing it a slippage from democracy. Opinions should not be confused with information and should never be censored, said the Prime Minister, who added that it is unworthy of the members of the Audiovisual Council to ground their decisions on political opinions and personal reasons, and not on the law. The main role of the Council is to ensure a civilized and balanced framework for public debates, not to obstruct them or turn itself into a Ministry of Truth, Marcel Ciolacu said.
UKRAINE – The leaders of the countries that support Ukraine are currently ruling out the lifting of any sanctions imposed on Russia and are even considering increasing them. This is the unanimous conclusion of Thursday’s summit in Paris, after Russia made lifting sanctions a condition for a ceasefire agreement in the Black Sea region to come into force. Present at the meeting, the interim Romanian president, Ilie Bolojan, said that Romania is ruling out sending troops to Ukraine, but if a peace plan is reached, it could become a transport hub for the designated forces. At the same time, he announced that Romania will participate in the working group for monitoring compliance with the ceasefire agreement in the Black Sea, through the infrastructure it has, but also through collaboration with Turkey and Bulgaria.
RULING – The Constitutional Court has rejected as unfounded the objections raised by senators and deputies of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), the Young People’s Party (POT) and S.O.S. Romania (opposition) to two defense laws recently adopted in Parliament. Judges have established that both the law on shooting down drones entering national airspace and the law on the conduct of military missions and operations during peacetime on the territory of the Romanian state do not violate the fundamental law. The complaints mainly concerned the provisions related to the transfer of authority. The Court found that the regulation of a shared competence between the structures of the institutions that are part of the national defence system and the structures of the forces of allied and partner states does not affect Romania’s sovereignty.
DEFENCE – The Supreme Council of National Defense today hold the first meeting convened by the interim president Ilie Bolojan. The agenda of talks includes the stage and prospects of the conflict in Ukraine, the implications for Romania and Bucharest’s stand in the context of the negotiation process regarding the end of the conflict triggered by the Russian Federation. Council members are also analyzing the activity of the institutions with responsibilities in the field of national security in 2024 and their main objectives for this year. The interim president has recently said that Romania will participate in an European consortia for the production and acquisition of weapons. Ilie Bolojan explained that EU member states will be able to jointly carry out acquisitions for the defense industry, which will constitute an opportunity for Romania.
TIME – Romania switches to summer time on Saturday night to Sunday, when 3:00 am (local time) will become 4:00 am. Thus, the last Sunday of March will have only 23 hours, becoming the shortest day of the year. The transition from winter time to summer time has been intensely debated in recent years, with the European Parliament recommending abandoning the time change. The EU member states were supposed to notify, by 2021, whether they wanted to permanently apply summer time or winter time, but the discussion has not been finalized. The time change was decided for practical reasons – to make the most of daylight. Currently, 70 countries around the world have summer time and winter time.
HANDBALL – The Romanian women’s handball champion, CSM Bucharest, meets, on Saturday, at home, another Romanian team, Rapid Bucharest, in a decisive match for qualification to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. CSM is the favorite after a 34-24 win, away from home. The winner of the double leg will play against the Danish champion, Esbjerg, for a place in the Final Four of the competition. Also on Saturday, Dunărea Brăila (south-east) meets Ikast Handbold, from Denmark, in the return leg of the EHF European League quarterfinals. In the round, the Romanian team lost, 32-30. (EE)
