October 27, 2025
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 27.10.2025, 14:01
HOLIDAY Orthodox believers are today celebrating St. Dimitrie the New, the patron saint of Bucharest and Muntenia, whose relics are kept in the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest. The outdoor religious sermon today is being officiated by Patriarch Daniel jointly with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew 1st on the Patriarchy Hill in Bucharest. Also today, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople will be awarded a decoration by the country’s president, Nicusor Dan. We recall that on Sunday he participated together with Daniel in the sanctification of the national Cathedral in Bucharest.
LAW Senators in Bucharest are today debating a bill on training the population for defence, under which young people with ages between 18 and 35 can voluntarily join a four-month programme of military training. The bill has already been greenlighted by the Chamber of Deputies and has been urgently submitted for Senate approval. Under the aforementioned law, at the end of the training, the volunteers will get the equivalent of three gross salaries and remain in the operational reserves of the Romanian Army. According to Defence Minister, Ionut Mosteanu, these measures are aimed at rejuvenating the Romanian armed forces. The specialized committees of the Chamber of Deputies are expected to hold debates over another bill on the functioning of the national defence and which are the institutions and mechanisms responsible for the protection of the territory.
TALKS The European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jorgensen, is in Romania to attend the ministerial meeting of the high-level Group on Central and South-Eastern Europe Energy Connectivity also known as CESEC, staged in Bucharest by the European Commission jointly with the Energy Ministry. Commissioner Jorgensen will be meeting Romania’s Prime Minister, Ilie Bolojan, and will be having a series of bilateral meetings with Energy Minister, Bogdan-Gruia Ivan, with the president of the National Authority of Energy Regulation, George Niculescu and the director general of the national operator of gas transportation, Transgaz, Ion Sterian. The CESEC will have high on the agenda the accomplishments of the REPowerEU objectives, in the context of the advanced negotiations at the EU level on the gradual elimination of the imports of fossil fuel from Russia. Talks will also focus on market integration as well as on diversifying and stepping up energy and connectivity infrastructure projects, with ways of cutting energy costs and making it more accessible.
POLL Social-Democrat Daniel Baluta, the incumbent mayor of Bucharest’s District 4 is the first in a voting intention ranking for the Bucharest city hall with 25% followed by the Liberal, Ciprian Ciucu, mayor of District 6 with 23%, says a poll conducted by Avantgarde. Coming next in this poll are the USR MP Catalin Drula with 18% and journalist Anca Alexandrescu with 16%. Asked whether they are satisfied about what capital Bucharest looks like at present, 68% of the respondents said no, whereas 30% said yes. The election for the Bucharest mayor seat will be held on December 7. The mayor seat remained vacant after the city’s former mayor, Nicusor Dan had won the presidential election last year. The poll was conducted over October 19-25 on one thousand respondents in Bucharest with an error margin of +/- 3.2%
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