March 14, 2026 UPDATE
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 14.03.2026, 19:25
State budget. The budget bill for 2026 will be submitted to a final vote in Parliament next Thursday. On Friday, the joint permanent bureaus of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate approved the calendar for the debate and adoption of the state budget and the social security bills for this year. The main challenge, that of reducing the deficit to 6.2% of GDP, will be supported by an ambitious reduction in state spending by 10 billion lei (2 billion euros). However, investments will go up to a record level of almost 170 billion lei (34 billion euros), mainly funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the SAFE programme. The budget bill is based on an economic growth rate of 1% and an inflation rate of 6.5% at the end of the year. Senate speaker Mircea Abrudean said the budget needs to be passed by Parliament in the form adopted by the Government, describing it as “realistic” and “without undue privileges”.
Fuel. The Ministry of Energy in Bucharest announced that it is preparing several measures to combat the increase in fuel prices. The measures are included in an internal working document that was sent to the prime minister and coalition leaders in an attempt to find solutions as quickly as possible. Energy Minister Bogdan Ivan stressed that a government decision is needed for these measures to be applied, but that some steps have already been taken to combat the effects of the war in the Middle East. On Friday, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said the government cannot prevent fuel price increases, but is closely following their evolution in order to take certain measures to mitigate their impact. Fuel prices have continued to go up in Romania, with diesel oil and petrol already passing 9 lei (that’s about 1.8 euros).
Alert. The population in the north of Tulcea County, near the Romanian-Ukrainian border, received three text alert messages in fewer than 12 hours on Friday, warning them that drones had been detected in the immediate vicinity of the Romanian airspace. The Delta Inspectorate for Emergency Situations emphasises that Romania is not targeted by the air strikes of the Russian Federation, but, given the situation in the proximity of the border, the authorities are sending warning messages to inform and protect the population. According to a press release from the Ministry of Defence, in this context, aircraft in the Reinforced Air Police service were scrambled for the research and monitoring of airspace. In another development, Radio Chisinau reported that a Russian Shahed drone on Friday night entered the airspace of the Republic of Moldova. According to the Moldovan authorities, the incident occurred in the Cimişlia region, in the south of the country. The Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the incident, considering that a serious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova.
Middle East. US forces carried out a large-scale precision strike on Iran’s Kharg Island on Friday evening, the US Central Command – CENTCOM announced on Saturday. According to Reuters, the attack destroyed naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and many other military installations, the US military said in a post on a social network. US President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to attack the oil infrastructure of the Iranian centre on Kharg Island if Iranian forces did not stop attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. In response, according to EFE, Iran announced on Saturday that its forces attacked “key targets” at three US air bases located in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar. (CM)
