April 30, 2025 UPDATE (2)
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 30.04.2025, 20:00
DEFENSE – Interim president Ilie Bolojan announced that the Minister of National Defense, Angel Tîlvăr, has been mandated to express Romania’s readiness to gradually increase its defense budget by 2030 in negotiations and technical talks in preparation of the NATO summit in the Hague. In a statement made at the end of the meeting of the Supreme Defense Council, Bolojan said that Romania will thus be able to ensure its security and, jointly with its European partners, contribute to Europe’s defense. The interim president said that a special task force has been created, led by the Prime Minister’s Chancellery and supported by representatives of the Ministries of Defense and the Economy, which will prepare Romania’s application for loans made available by the European Commission for member states for additional defense spending. Bolojan said that the loan is advantageous, with a repayment period of over 40 years and a grace period of 10 years, which will allow Romania to improve its military capabilities without overstraining the national budget. Last but not least, the interim president also announced that the Council has approved the National Plan on Military Mobility. The plan stipulates the construction of a new bridge over the Danube as an important project, and Romania has joined a new north-south mobility corridor.
INVESTMENT – Total state budget revenues increased by 16% in March and reached almost €10.5 billion, and according to data, the situation is positive this month as well, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said. He also announced that a new German company intends to invest over €30 million in Romania for the construction of a smart ventilator factory in Oradea (northwest), which will help create 1,000 jobs. The Prime Minister also said that over €200 million will be invested to purchase 12 electric subway trains. These will ensure the link between the “Henri Coandă” International Airport and Bucharest subway lines.
FUNDS – The European Commission has announced that it disburse some €910 million to Romania for several projects in the field of defense, in terms of military mobility and drones. One of these is “Auriga”, whereby Romania and other states are developing technology and standards for armored assault vehicles for the infantry. The project ius valued at €30 million, and European funding stands at €25 million. Another project is “Citadel”, focusing on cyber capabilities, with a total value of €68 million, of which €48 million represents non-reimbursable funding. Another example is “Ninja 2”, focused on correcting guidance errors made by satellite systems in hitting targets on the battlefield. The project has a value of €29 million and is funded by the Commission at a rate of 98%.
MAY DAY – Romanians will have a 4-day mini-holiday starting May 1. Most hotel owners on the Black Sea Coast are making the final preparations to welcome the over 50,000 tourists expected during this period. The most popular resorts are, as every year, Mamaia, Vama Veche and Eforie, where performances by well-known Romanian music artists are announced, among other things. Another destination for the May 1 mini-holiday is the Danube Delta. The booking rate of guesthouses is about 80%, similar to that during the Easter holidays. The Danube Delta, declared a Biosphere Reserve in 1990, has an area of over 4,000 square kilometers, of which 82% is located on Romania’s territory. The Delta is included in the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List and has over 8,000 species, being famous for its ornithological population. Local communities are characterized by ethnic diversity, the main occupations of the people living in the Danube Delta being fishing, tourism and animal husbandry.
MINI-HOLIDAY – Some 26,000 employees of the Romanian Interior Ministry will ensure public order and safety during the May 1 mini-holiday, with their number increasing to 43,000 on Sunday, the day of the first round of the presidential election, the Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday. Ministry personnel will be reinforced in crowded areas, namely mountain and seaside resorts and border crossing points. Ministry employees will be present at public events with a large number of participants, in order to prevent and combat illegal acts, but also to be able to intervene in specific situations.
RELICS – The relics of the Holy Empress Helena, mother of Saint Constantine the Great, Emperor and Equal-to-the-Apostles, were brought to Romania on Wednesday. The relics are on display in Bucharest for a few hours. Then, a delegation of the Roman Catholic Church dedicated to Saint Helena in Venice, which owns custody of the relics are, will set off with the reliquary to the Pantocrator Monastery in Teleorman County (south). The reliquary will remain there until May 8. The Holy Empress Helena was buried in Rome, then her relics were transferred to Constantinople. In 1211, during one of the Crusades, the Western knights took them to Venice, from where they were only taken out for pilgrimage eight centuries later. Romania is the second Orthodox country, after Greece in 2017, where the relics have been brought after being moved to Venice. The event is part of a series of events marking in 2025 100 years since the establishment of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate.
TENNIS – The pair made up of Sorana Cîrstea (Romania) and Anna Kalinskaya (Russia) on Wednesday qualified to the semifinals of the doubles event of the WTA 1000 tennis tournament in Madrid, offering total prizes of nearly €7.9 million. The Romanian-Russian pair defeated the Czech-Danish duo Linda Noskova/Clara Tauson 6-0, 6-3. Cîrstea and her partner secured a €113,880 check and 390 WTA points. In the semi-finals, the two will face the third seeds, Su-Wei Hsieh from Taiwan and Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia. (LS & VP)
