March 18, 2025

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 18.03.2025, 13:55

Elections. The Central Electoral Bureau has validated 12 candidates for the presidential elections in Romania, due in May. On March 20, the validated candidacies and electoral signs remain final, and on March 22, the order of the candidates on the ballot will be established. The interim President of Romania, Ilie Bolojan, met on Monday with the authorities and public institutions responsible for organizing the election. It is essential that all the institutions involved fulfill their responsibilities in a professional and coordinated manner, in order to guarantee the smooth conduct of the elections and to ensure respect for the fundamental principles of democracy, the Presidential Administration has stated. In another move, the Permanent Electoral Authority has announced that, in the diaspora, over 5,000 requests for postal voting in the presidential election were registered. Most requests came from Germany, followed by the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The deadline by which Romanians with domicile or residence abroad can still register to vote by mail is March 20, at midnight.

Kyiv. The Security Service of Ukraine announced that it has banned Romanian MEP Diana Ivanovici Şoşoacă from entering the territory of neighboring Ukraine for three years. In a press release, which was picked up by news agencies, Kyiv argues that the president of the populist SOS Romania party supports Russia’s war against Ukraine. In addition, she has sent letters to President Vladimir Putin, in which she praises the Russian invasion, questioning Ukraine’s sovereignty and its internationally recognized borders. In an initial reaction, the MEP wrote on Facebook that she ignores the decision, which she believes comes “from a state that does not exist.”

Brussels. The Council of the European Union on Monday gave the green light to the third payment to Kyiv, worth almost 3.5 billion euros, from the funds of the Ukraine Facility, consisting of grants and non-reimbursable loans. The main goal of this facility is to support the macro-financial stability, recovery, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine, the Council said in a statement. With this payment, Kyiv has received a total of almost 20 billion euros so far through this facility that entered into force a year ago. On Monday, the EU foreign ministers also examined a new initiative to provide Kyiv with military aid worth up to 40 billion euros this year. Romania was represented by Emil Hurezeanu, who expressed support for the initiative of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, regarding the consolidation and acceleration of European military support for Ukraine. Regarding Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the Romanian Foreign Minister expressed our country’s firm support for the establishment of a just and lasting peace, backed by solid and credible security guarantees, as well as for the continued provision of European assistance to Kyiv.

Eurostat. Romania ended 2024 with the lowest job vacancy rate in the European Union. According to Eurostat, while the average rate in the Union was 2.3%, in Romania it stood at only 0.7%, the same as Bulgaria and Poland. At the opposite end, the member states with the highest job vacancy rate were Belgium and the Netherlands, with over 4 percent. According to data published last month by the National Institute of Statistics in Bucharest, the number of job vacancies was, in the last quarter of last year, about 34 thousand, up compared to the same period in 2023, but down compared to the third quarter of 2024. Most job vacancies were in the production and supply of electricity and heat, gas, hot water and air conditioning, in public administration and cultural and recreational activities.

Immigration. Seven foreign citizens, aged between 25 and 51, who no longer had the right to reside in Romania, have been removed from the country’s territory – the General Inspectorate for Immigration reported on Tuesday. Four of them are from Bangladesh, and one each from India, Venezuela and Sri Lanka. “Following the checks, it was established that five of them entered Romania legally between 2019-2023, for work purposes, but did not take the necessary measures to regulate their right to reside, and two others entered the country illegally in February 2025” – the cited source mentions. Immigration police have ordered the seven to be banned from entering the European Union and the European Economic Area for a period of five years.

Football. The Romanian national football team is preparing its first matches in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday in Bucharest and against San Marino on Monday, March 24, away from home. Austria and Cyprus are also part of the same Group H. The 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign starts in Europe in March 2025 and will end in November 2025. The winners of the 12 preliminary groups will qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup. The other four places available for the European zone will be contested by the 12 second-placed teams in the groups and the best-placed group winners from the 2024-25 Nations League, which did not qualify through the qualifiers. Romania has not qualified for a World Cup finals tournament since 1998.

Tennis. Romanian tennis player Gabriela Ruse has managed to reach the main draw of the singles of the Miami Open (WTA 1,000) tournament, which begins on Tuesday in Florida, United States, and has some 9 million dollars in prize money. Ruse (27 years old, 102 WTA) defeated Japanese Ena Shibahara 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, on Monday, in the final round of the qualifications. In the first round of the main draw, the Romanian will face for the first time the Russian Polina Kudermetova (21 years old, 56 WTA. Irina Begu (34 years old, 69 WTA), on the other hand, was defeated by Hungarian Anna Bondar 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/5). Another Romanian player in the main draw for singles is Sorana Cîrstea (34, WTA 101), who will play in the first round against Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto. The only confrontation between the two so far ended with the Romanian’s victory, 6-0, 6-3, in 2020, in the round of 16, in Dubai. 9MI)