Delegations of the interior ministries of Bulgaria and Romania Monday discussed new challenges facing law enforcers following the lifting of border controls at EU internal land borders and agreed on joint measures to address these challenges, Bulgaria's Interior Ministry said on its website, cited by https://www.bta.bg/. On January 1, Bulgaria and Romania became full members of the Schengen area, lifting checks at all internal EU borders. The common goal is to ensure the smooth crossing of people and goods across the border while maintaining a high level of security and preventing organized crime groups from taking advantage of the right to free movement, the Ministry said. The meeting in Bucharest was chaired by Chief Commissioner Miroslav Rashkov, Secretary General of Bulgaria's Interior Ministry, and Police Chief-Quaestor Bogdan Despescu, Secretary of State for Public Order and Safety at Romania's Ministry of Internal Affair. The heads of the police and border police directorates and of units combating organized crime also took part. The Bucharest meeting was part of an established bilateral mechanism for regular meetings of the professional leaderships, aimed at reviewing cooperation in combating illegal migration and other forms of cross-border crime, enhancing security along the common border, facilitating the movement of legitimate travellers, and guaranteeing the safety of citizens of both countries and of the Schengen area. Rashkov and Despescu signed an updated Joint Action Plan with compensatory measures, building on a similar plan signed in June 2024. The updated plan takes into account the two countries' new status following the removal of land border controls and provides for additional activities, the Interior Ministry said. The two also signed a declaration formalizing internal regulations on cross-border pursuits on the territories of both countries, based on common principles and procedures. In December 2024, the Bulgarian government adopted a decision on the temporary introduction of checks on the border with Romania and on the suspension of the functioning of border checkpoints on the Bulgarian-Romanian and Bulgarian-Greek borders. Border checks will continue to be carried out at the internal border crossing points with Romania for a period of six months starting from January 1, 2025, after which they will be suspended.
Around 32% of Romanians plan to spend their upcoming holidays abroad, with Greece, Italy, and Spain topping the list of preferred destinations, according to the Visa CEE Travel and Payment Intentions Study 2025. Of those going abroad for the summer, nearly 40% say they are “experience seekers,” prioritizing discoveries and stepping out of their comfort […]
Călin Georgescu, the far-right, Russia-friendly politician who surprisingly emerged as the first-round winner of last year’s presidential elections, will remain under judicial supervision after the District 1 Court in Bucharest rejected his appeal against the prosecutors’ decision to extend the preventive measure,
The mayor of Timișoara, Dominic Fritz, will be the new leader of the Save Romania Union party, or USR, after he received 67.2% of the votes in an internal race. The vote for the new party president was conducted online and started Wednesday at 10 AM and ended Friday at noon. A total of 10,914 […]
The Sports Barometer in Romania, a study conducted by IRES and presented on Thursday, June 12, during the Sports Festival, reveals that 32% of Romanians do not engage in any type of physical activity, and that as age increases motivation drastically decreases. According to the study, 28% of Romanians are super-active and do a form […]
The Romanian-American University has officially launched the country’s first Department of Latin American Studies (DSLA), marking a significant step in its internationalization efforts. The inauguration brought together official representatives from eight Latin American countries - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay - underlining the strong diplomatic support for deepening educational and cultural […]
Romanian president Nicușor Dan laid wreaths on Friday, June 13, at the Monument dedicated to the memory of the victims of the June 13–15, 1990 Mineriad and at the “Kilometer Zero of Democracy” Monument. The violent events of June 1990 remain in post-communist memory as the “June 13–15, 1990 Mineriad” and refer to the repression, […]
