Romania’s Schengen accession will not be subject to a vote during the Justice and Home Affairs Council’s (JHA) meeting on 5 December, according to political sources cited by News.ro, Euractiv.com informs. During the upcoming JHA Council next week, the discussion on Romania and Bulgaria’s Schengen accession is expected without a formal vote, given ongoing negotiations for a new government in the Netherlands. The provisional agenda of the JHA indicates that on 5 December, there will be discussions on the overall situation in the Schengen area, along with a potential debate on the Council Decision concerning the full application of Schengen provisions in Bulgaria and Romania. According to sources cited by News.ro, Romania is striving to convene an Extraordinary Council by the end of December to decide on Romania’s accession in two stages, commencing with air borders in March next year, followed by road and sea borders. The sources affirm that a separation from Bulgaria is not being considered. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has explored this scenario with his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sanchez. The Netherlands has opposed Bulgaria’s entry into Schengen, and Austria has opposed both Romania’s and Bulgaria’s inclusion in the free movement area. Despite Vienna’s consistent signalling of maintaining its position, on Tuesday, Social Affairs Minister Johannes Rauch expressed on the X platform that Romania’s Schengen accession would benefit Austria and Romania. “Both Austria and Romania would benefit greatly from Romania’s Schengen accession. It would have advantages for many companies and would also be a great relief for the 30,000 24-hour caregivers on whom thousands of families in Austria depend”, Rauch wrote in the context of a meeting in Brussels with Romanian Labour and Social Solidarity Minister Simona Bucura-Oprescu. Last week, Bulgarian EPP MEP Andrey Kovatchev told journalists in Strasbourg that Bulgaria will not be admitted to Schengen before Austria’s 2024 parliamentary elections.
Bucharest’s Grigore Antipa Museum of Natural History is now offering an audio guide in Ukrainian. The guide, made in a partnership with Ukraine’s Embassy to Romania, adds to the museum’s existing ones in Romanian, English, and Turkish. The project is part of an initiative started by Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, and rolled out in […]
The remains of Grigore Alexandru Ghica, a prince of Moldavia in the second half of the 19th century, have been brought back to Romania from France’s Le Mée-sur-Seine this past weekend. After lying in state at Cotroceni Palace, the headquarters of the Romanian Presidency, the coffin with his remains will travel to Focşani and Iaşi, […]
Representatives of the ruling Social Democratic Party, PSD, gathered for a congress in Bucharest on Friday, November 7, to elect new leadership and to amend the party’s Statute. The only candidate for party leader is Sorin Grindeanu, who held the interim position after Marcel Ciolacu's resignation in May. In his speech at the congress, Sorin […]
The e-commerce sector recorded strong early results on Black Friday 2025, according to real-time data released on Friday, November 7, by PayU GPO Romania from its dedicated Media Center. By 14:10, the payment processor reported successful transactions totaling RON 514 million (roughly EUR 101 million). PayU said shoppers had made roughly 889,000 purchases, with around […]
Contakt Express Logistik, one of Romania’s leading retailers of mobile phone and tablet accessories, with a network of over 235 stores, is set to launch the initial public offering (IPO) between November 12 and December 3, 2025. The company offers a wide range of products, including cases, screen protectors, chargers, and gadgets, both in physical […]
Romania attracts fewer international tourists today than it did during the communist era, making it the only country in Europe in this situation, the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT) warned, as reported by news agency Agerpres. According to the organization, Romania received more than 3.4...
