November 10, 2025 UPDATE(2)
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 10.11.2025, 20:00
Reform of public administration
Romanian President Nicușor Dan has scheduled a meeting on Tuesday with the leaders of the governing coalition PSD-PNL-UDMR-USR. Talks are expected to take place before the coalition’s weekly meeting, in which the sensitive issues of this period would be discussed and a decision should be made regarding the continuation of efforts related to the retirement of magistrates.
The Constitutional Court published, at the end of last week, the motivation for the decision based on which it ruled that the law is unconstitutional because a procedural step was not respected. At the same time, the final form of the public administration reform must be agreed upon, expected to be part of another third fiscal package, for which the government intends to take responsibility in Parliament.
The final form of the public administration reform project will be presented this week by the Minister of Development, Cseke Attila, and the document will then be analyzed in first reading in the government. Also this week, the new draft law regarding the reform of magistrates’ pensions will be drafted. Both reforms must be adopted before the state budget for next year is drafted, in order to contribute to reducing the deficit in 2026.
New legislation
The Romanian Senate will debate and vote, as a decision-making body, on the draft law on the preparation of the population for defense. The document is to be amended from the form adopted by the Chamber of Deputies in the sense of maintaining some specialties in operational reserve, especially regarding modern warfare.
Also in the Senate, the committees are considering a draft law on the prevention and fight against femicide, signed by over 250 senators and deputies of the ruling parties. The document provides for harsher punishments for aggressors and proposes the establishment of a national observatory for the analysis and prevention of murders. The Chamber of Deputies is expected to hold a final vote on the draft law that amends the Criminal Code, in the sense of introducing additional measures to protect victims of domestic violence and toughening the penalties applied to repeat aggressors.
Also on the legislative agenda this week are the draft law on online legal age and the new Urban Planning Code.
Grigore Alexandru Ghyka
In the county of Vrancea (southeast), events were scheduled on Monday to mark the repatriation of the coffin of Grigore Alexandru Ghyka, the last ruler of Moldavia before the Union of the Romanian Principalities in 1859. After being exhumed on November 7 from a settlement near Paris, the coffin with the earthly remains of the ruler was brought with military honors to Bucharest, where it was placed at the Presidency. A ceremony was held there with the participation of President Nicuşor Dan, who laid a wreath and lit candles. The ruler’s remains will be buried on Wednesday in Iaşi (northeast).
Grigore Alexandru Ghyka, who ruled Moldavia between 1849 and 1856, is described by historians as one of the most visionary figures of the 19th century. He was a unionist activist who paved the way for the Union of the Romanian Principalities in 1859 and promoted essential values for modern society: freedom, social justice and dignity. He supported courageous reforms, from the emancipation of the Roma and the abolition of censorship, to the development of public services and the introduction of a government model inspired by the great European democracies. He also founded the first maternity hospital in Moldavia using his own funds.
His repatriation represents not only an act of symbolic restoration but also a gesture of national gratitude towards a leader who laid the foundations of the modern Romanian state, Bucharest authorities say.
Report on poverty
In 2024, the relative poverty rate in Romania stood at 19%, the number of poor people corresponding to this rate being 3,595,000, according to data centralized by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
According to the Institute, the relative poverty rate represents the share of poor people whose income per adult is lower than the threshold established at 60% of the average disposable income per adult in the total population.
The highest incidence of poverty is reported among teenagers under 18 and young people aged 18-24.
The highest poverty rates were recorded in the southwest, southeast and northeast, while the lowest was in Bucharest-Ilfov.
France – Sarkozy to be released from prison
The Paris Court of Appeal ordered on Monday the release and placement under judicial control of former French President Nicolas Sarközy, who had been in prison for twenty days following his sentencing in the case of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign, France Presse reports.
Sarközy, 70 years old, was imprisoned after being handed down a five-year prison sentence. He requested conditional release shortly after starting to serve his sentence. In France, such a provision applies to prisoners aged 70 and over, allowing them to serve their sentence outside prison under certain conditions.
The Libyan financing case consists of allegations that Sarközy’s presidential campaign received illegal funds from the regime of Libya’s de facto leader at the time, Muammar al-Gaddafi. Although the Paris criminal court found no evidence of illegal campaign funds, it concluded in its ruling that the conservative politician and close ally of Gaddafi at least attempted to obtain funds from the Libyan leader. (VP)
