Meeting here on Tuesday, Bulgaria's National Assembly Defence Committee voted, 10-0 with 3 abstentions, to support a Government-proposed bill to ratify a Memorandum of Understanding between Bulgaria's Ministry of Defence and Romania's Ministry of National Defence regarding the setting up of a Regional Special Operations Component Command Headquarters (HQR-SOCC). According to https://www.bta.bg/, the two countries signed the Memorandum during the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., on July 10, 2024. "The Regional Headquarters can go into operation as early as the beginning of 2025," caretaker Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov said then. The initiative is part of the evolution of NATO's command and control system and will rotate between the two countries once every two years. Zapryanov said that this joint command is very important for both peacetime and wartime.Under the Memorandum, the headquarters will be a temporary deployable command element and will be activated according to the two countries' national procedures and in accordance with the established mechanisms of the Alliance for participation in Allied operations or upon activation of NATO's defence plans, as well as for participation in bilateral and multilateral exercises and training events, the reasons to the bill says. After the HQR-SOCC reaches Full Operational Capability, each of the countries will act as a Lead Nation, hosting the command for one year (or up to two years, if necessitated by circumstances) until rotation to the new Lead Nation which reaches Full Operational Capability. Romania will be the first to assume the command of HQR-SOCC. The Regional Special Operations Component Command Headquarters will be capable of commanding and controlling multinational special operations forces (SOF) and NATO operations support and conduct forces, the cited source says.
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on December 15 ruled in favor of judge Cristi Danileţ in his case against Romania and ruled that the Romanian authorities had violated Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights that guarantees freedom of expression, which includes the right to hold opinions […]
Romanian car battery producer Rombat SA has been fined a total of EUR 20.2 million by the European Commission for breaching European Union competition rules, the Commission said in a decision announced on December 15. Rombat is a subsidiary of the South African automotive components group Metair. The Commission found that Rombat participated in anti-competitive […]
Romania’s industrial output rose by 0.3% y/y in October, despite a negative performance (-0.3% y/y) in the core manufacturing segment, thanks to a robust 6.6% y/y advance in the segment of utilities, according to data published by the statistics office INS. On a monthly basis, the seasonally-adjusted industrial output advanced by 0.4% m/m despite 0.5% […]
Romania’s gross external debt increased by EUR 22 billion in the first ten months of 2025 to reach EUR 225.5 billion at the end of October, equivalent to 61% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to data published by the National Bank (BNR). Long-term liabilities accounted for 78.7% of the total stock. BNR data showed […]
Romania’s current account (CA) deficit widened by 1.9% y/y to EUR 3.19 billion in October 2025, bringing the deficit in the rolling 12-month period to EUR 29.8 billion – up 9.5% y/y and at 8.2% of the GDP, according to data published by the National Bank (BNR). The CA-to-GDP ratio was 8.2% for the previous […]
Wizz Air officially reopened its base in Suceava, northeastern Romania, on Monday, December 15, marking a key step in its local expansion. With the allocation of two next-generation Airbus A321neo aircraft, the airline now operates a total of 41 aircraft in Romania, with two additional planes already announced for 2026. The reopening coincides with the […]
