At the centre of the storm are Defence Minister Radu Miruță, Germany’s Rheinmetall, Romania’s state defence industry grouped around ROMARM, and a massive EU-backed SAFE envelope that could reach up to €17 billion.

The accusations are explosive: favouritism, lack of real competition, marginalisation of Romanian companies, and the risk that a strategic defence programme may become a foreign-controlled jackpot rather than a sovereign industrial project.

Rheinmetall, the German Giant at the Centre of the Storm

Rheinmetall is not an ordinary supplier entering Romania’s defence sector with a clean public image. The German arms group has previously been linked to a corruption controversy through its subsidiary Rheinmetall Defence Electronics, which became involved in a Greek defence procurement scandal connected to an air-defence contract worth around €150 million.

That dark chapter is now being revived by critics in Romania, who argue that such a company should not be treated as the default winner of strategic military contracts without strict scrutiny, transparent procedures, and genuine competition.

The concern is not only about Rheinmetall’s past. It is about its apparent present dominance in Romania’s defence plans. According to accusations now circulating in the Romanian public space, Rheinmetall appears to be repeatedly positioned as the preferred player in major SAFE-related procurement discussions, while other international competitors are allegedly kept out of the real race.

Names such as BAE Systems, IAI and other major defence actors have been mentioned in this context, with critics claiming that the competition is being narrowed in practice before Romania has even had a proper open contest.

A €17 Billion Programme or a Pre-Selected Winner?

The EU-backed SAFE mechanism was supposed to help Romania modernise its military capabilities while strengthening European defence resilience. On paper, the logic is clear: faster procurement, stronger armed forces, better industrial capacity, and a more credible national defence architecture.

But the scandal now unfolding in Bucharest suggests a very different picture. Critics claim that, instead of creating a competitive procurement framework, the Defence Ministry is allowing a model in which a single major foreign player gains disproportionate access to Romania’s largest defence opportunities.

The stakes are enormous. Some accusations suggest that Rheinmetall could end up absorbing billions from Romania’s SAFE allocation through projects linked to armoured vehicles, air-defence systems, command platforms, and other strategic military capabilities.

If true, this would mean that Romania’s biggest defence financing opportunity in recent history could become less a national industrial revival and more a large-scale import pipeline.

ROMARM Left Outside Its Own Country’s Defence Future

The fiercest anger comes from the Romanian defence industry itself. ROMARM, the state-owned umbrella group for Romania’s defence production capacity, is reportedly frustrated by the way domestic companies have been treated in the SAFE planning process. The accusation is blunt: Romanian industry was not placed at the centre of the programme, was not seriously consulted from the beginning, and is now being reduced to a secondary role.

Instead of acting as a strategic industrial pillar, Romanian companies risk becoming assembly partners, subcontractors or symbolic participants in projects designed and controlled elsewhere.

This is the core of the scandal. Romania is being told it must prepare for war, strengthen its sovereignty, rebuild its military credibility, and invest billions in defence. Yet, according to critics, the same state appears unwilling to trust its own industrial base with a serious prime-contractor role.

That contradiction is politically toxic. A country cannot speak every day about national defence while treating its own defence factories as decorative subcontractors.

The Beretta Complaint and the Question of Competition

The controversy deepened after Italy’s Beretta publicly complained about the lack of a genuine open-tender process. For a major European arms manufacturer to raise such concerns is not a small technical objection. It points directly to the heart of the procurement problem.

If the process is truly transparent, why are major competitors complaining? If the market is genuinely open, why do critics claim that some companies are not being allowed to compete properly? If Romania’s SAFE programme is meant to comply with European principles of transparency and competition, why does the public debate increasingly describe it as a pre-arranged race?

These are not minor administrative questions. There are questions about billions of euros, national security, industrial survival, and Romania’s credibility inside the European defence system.

Defence Minister Radu Miruță Under Fire

Defence Minister Radu Miruță is now becoming the political face of the scandal. His critics accuse him of allowing, enabling or politically covering a procurement direction that benefits a foreign arms group at the expense of Romania’s own industrial base. The language used in parts of the Romanian media has already gone far beyond normal political criticism.

Some voices have even used the phrase “high treason” in relation to the minister’s handling of the defence programme. There is no formal treason indictment against Radu Miruță. That must be stated clearly. But the fact that such accusations are now being made publicly shows how explosive the issue has become.

The argument used by his critics is simple and brutal: if a defence minister channels strategic national-security programmes toward one foreign group, limits real competition, and leaves Romanian industry outside the main structure, then the issue is no longer only poor management. It becomes, in their view, a possible attack on the national interest.

Political Biography Becomes Part of the Scandal

As often happens in Romanian politics, the procurement scandal has now expanded into a personal credibility war. Miruță’s own biography is being dissected by critics and media voices. They point to previous public positions, political promises, and claims about his relationship with state office or military service. The narrative being built against him is that of a politician who speaks the language of principle but operates inside the very power structures he once criticised.

Whether this personal line of attack is politically fair or exaggerated, it is now part of the scandal. In his opponents’ view, Miruță is not portrayed as a defence reformer. He is being portrayed as a political actor fronting a high-budget show in which the Romanian industry loses, and Rheinmetall wins.

Brussels Could Become the Next Battlefield

The danger for Romania does not stop in Bucharest. If the SAFE procurement framework is challenged on transparency, competition, or discriminatory access, the issue could be referred to the European Commission. That would be a serious escalation.

A formal European challenge or non-compliance procedure could damage Romania’s credibility at exactly the moment when the country wants to present itself as a responsible defence actor on NATO’s eastern flank.

The possible consequences are severe: financial penalties, blocked or delayed funds, reputational damage, and increased scrutiny over Romania’s defence spending. For a country already struggling with public distrust, institutional weakness and political instability, such a scandal would be disastrous.

Sovereignty or Industrial Surrender?

The central question is now unavoidable. Is Romania using SAFE to build sovereign defence capacity, or is it using European money to finance foreign-controlled military platforms while its own factories are pushed into the background?

Modernisation does not automatically mean sovereignty. Buying expensive foreign equipment does not automatically create national strength. And bringing Romanian factories into the process only at the level of assembly, maintenance, or low-value participation does not amount to a serious industrial strategy.

If Romania spends billions but fails to rebuild its own defence production capacity, then SAFE could become a historic missed opportunity. Even worse, it could become a symbol of industrial surrender disguised as European modernisation.

A Defence Programme Turning Into a Political Grenade

Romania’s defence sector is no longer dealing only with procurement files, technical specifications and industrial partnerships. It is now dealing with a political grenade.

The public narrative is already out of control: a German arms giant with a controversial past, a Romanian defence minister accused of favouritism, domestic factories warning that they are being ignored, foreign competitors complaining about a lack of competition, and billions of euros hanging over the entire process.

This is no longer a normal procurement debate. It is a test of whether Romania can defend its own strategic interests while spending European money under public scrutiny.

If the accusations prove exaggerated, the Defence Ministry must urgently present clear evidence of competition, transparency and genuine Romanian industrial participation.

If the accusations prove accurate, then Romania is facing one of the most serious defence scandals in its recent history.

For now, the image is brutal: while politicians speak of sovereignty, Romanian industry waits outside the gate, Rheinmetall appears to be moving closer to the jackpot, and Radu Miruță stands at the centre of a storm that could define his mandate.

SAFE was supposed to strengthen Romania. Instead, it may become the scandal that exposes how weak Romania’s defence sovereignty really is.

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The inclusion of Automecanica Mediaş in the Rheinmetall family marks an important stage in our strategy to strengthen the Group’s presence in Central Europe, which, in turn, contributes to strengthening the defensive capabilities of the EU and NATO on the eastern flank of Europe.

Armin Papperger director executive of Rheinmetall

In the medium term, Rheinmetall expects Rheinmetall Automecanica’s annual sales to approach 300 million euros and total orders for the current financial year to fall into the three-digit million euro range.

The company also operates production units in two other countries on the eastern flank of NATO – Hungary and Lithuania.

In December 2023, Rheinmetall concluded a 328 million euro contract with the Romanian state, which provides for the modernization of the country’s anti-aircraft defense systems.

Company officials say that Rheinmetall had collaborated with Automecanica since 2022 when the two companies joined forces to operate a military vehicle maintenance and repair facility in Satu Mare.

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As reported by ntv, in the future, Rheinmetall wants to service and repair weapons from Ukraine, such as battle tanks and self-propelled howitzers in Romania. “Rheinmetall is working flat out to set up a military maintenance and logistics center in Romania, a NATO partner country,” said a spokesman. Work on the site near the city of Satu Mare has already begun. This is near the Ukrainian border.

The center is scheduled to start work in April. It should “play a central role in maintaining the operational readiness of Western combat systems in Ukraine and ensuring their logistical support”. According to the Düsseldorf group, this applies to self-propelled howitzers – but also to main battle tanks such as the Leopard 2 or the British Challenger, armoured personnel carriers such as the Marder, Fuchs armoured transport vehicles or military trucks. Combat vehicles of the NATO forces could also be looked after there.

“It is a key concern for us at Rheinmetall to give the NATO forces and Ukraine the best possible support in this critical situation,” said Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger. Servicing and repairing weapons supplied to Ukraine played an essential role in the country’s defence after the Russian attack.

In June 2022, Rheinmetall and its partner company KMW founded a comparable maintenance center in Jonava, Lithuania, to be able to look after combat vehicles of the Lithuanian and other NATO forces stationed in the Baltic States.

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After the official meeting in Bucharest, Emmanuel Macron and Klaus Johannis met in Kyiv along with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

The European officials saw the effects of the Russian attacks on this official visit. According to the France Ambassador in Ukraine, the event was crucial for the Ukrainians because it allowed the four government leaders to see the scale of the devastation.

Romanian President Klaus Johannis send a message on social media on this occasion, along with images from Irpin town.

No words to describe the unimaginable human tragedy and horrible destructions we saw today in Irpin. I strongly renew my appeal for all Russian perpetrators to be held responsible by the international criminal justice, which Romania fully supports.

Klaus Johannis, Romanian President

The message of the four political leaders meeting in the capital of Ukraine is a strong one. The horrors of the war can be seen on the buildings in Ukraine, and throughout Europe, so this official visit was certainly not a class trip between political leaders. Is this an encouragement for Ukraine to join the EU or a political temptation for Moscow amid a military conflict?

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Following the latest events, NATO is sending more fighter jets to strengthen air forces on the eastern flank of Romania. According to the Romania Ministry of Defence, the German detachment will carry out, together with the soldiers of the Romanian Air Force and the Italian Air Force, enhanced Air Policing missions under NATO command in the next three weeks.

Joint training missions aim to increase interoperability between NATO allies, and common air police missions contribute to the development of responsiveness and deterrence.

Romania Ministry of Defence

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that additional forces will be sent to Eastern Europe “in the coming days and weeks” and that elements of NATO’s “defensive” response force will be activated.

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According to Agerpress, the Competition Council sanctioned five pharmaceutical companies, suppliers of immunoglobulins and other human plasma-derived drugs, and the representative association of the plasma protein therapy manufacturers – PPTA (Belgium) with fines totalling EUR 71 million.

As a national competition authority that ensures the application of the federal and Community rules on competition, the Competition Council started an investigation in 2018 on the pharmaceutical market and found that these companies adopted a strategy aimed at limiting and even interrupting the supply of the Romanian market with immunoglobulins, to put pressure on the authorities to suspend the clawback tax for medicines derived from human blood or human plasma.

Who are the European companies investigated and sanctioned by the Romanian authorities?

According to a statement from the competition authority, the companies who sought financial advantages are Baxalta Gmbh, Switzerland – 22.5 million euro; CSL Behring Gmbh, Germany – 15 million euro; Biotest AG, Germany – 5 million euro; Kedrion Spa, Italy – 3.26 million euro; Octapharma AG, Switzerland – 25.34 million euro; PPTA, Belgium: 71,000 euro.

By analyzing the events, we can conclude that all these companies endangered patients’ lives for their financial gain. Immunoglobulins are essential for patients with severe health conditions, for its a medical treatment for numerous diseases characterized by antibody deficiency. These pharmaceutical companies generated a crisis through this marketing strategy urging the authorities to take immediate measures to provide patients with the necessary medicines, therefore suspending the clawback charge for drugs.

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According to a statement transmitted by company representatives and the Romanian-German Chamber of Trade and Industry AHK, Oves Enterprise, with a turnover of about 14 million EUR in 2021, will extend its team by about 60 people this year on the occasion of the opening of the new office in Munich.

Currently, we have 20 clients outside Romania, 10 of them in Germany. Hence the desire to set up an office in Munich. Also, 80% of last year’s turnover was generated by businesses from abroad. With the international expansion, we estimate that the share will be increased to 95%.

Mihai Filip, CEO of Oves Enterprise

This year, OVES Enterprise’s growth ambitions include doubling the number of personnel to support the company’s international expansion and participation in increasingly complicated projects. As a result, the team will grow from 68 members in 2021 to 130 by the end of 2022.

The German-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK Romania) supports investments in Germany by free consulting and intermediating contacts.

We noticed that the Romanian companies are increasingly interested and have the potential to become active in foreign markets, and we can only cheer this. We provide the necessary support for exchanging experience and provide useful information for developing a profitable business.

Sebastian Metz, general manager, AHK Romania

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Meanwhile, the fourth wave in Romania is losing its strength. The daily number of cases dropped from 17,000 to 5,000 in one week, and the specialists see the end of the wave very near.

Who are the Idiots of Europe now?

On the contrary, Germany, which is probably now playing the role of the Idiots of Europe by the standard of the same German journalists, see a very steep growth in the daily number of cases.

In fact, while Romania has 5,000 cases a day, Germany has almost 50,000 cases a day. So, ten times more cases for a population only four times bigger than Romania’s.

It seems that if the same German newspaper published a piece of news today on the subject, by the very standards they are using, they would say Germany very well plays the role of the Idiots of Europe at the moment, and they will continue to play it for a while vaccinated or not. It seems that the German journalists still have to learn to respect other people’s choices, even if those people are from the former communist bloc.

The evolution of the pandemic in Germany determined the Romanian authorities to include the state on the list of the red zone countries, along with others.

For detailed information on the list of red countries, please consult the Covid-19 updated situation in Romania.

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Reportedly, the vloggers were offered EUR 2,000 and even more if they would’ve agreed to support the campaign. Basically, all they had to mention in their posts or vlogs was that Pfizer causes more deaths than Astra Zeneca.

The address of the British agency, supposedly named Fazze, was false. In fact, there is no agency with this name registered in London or in the UK. Moreover, the Western journalists found out one of the online IDs used to contact the influencers has a connection to VK, former VKontakte, the “Russian Facebook”.

While Pfizer is the most used vaccine in Europe, AstraZeneca somehow fell behind. Firstly, because of its adverse reactions, especially those involving blood clotting. Secondly, because of the way the producer failed to comply with the contract’s clauses regarding the delivery schedule and volumes.

So far, in the EU countries were administered 222,285,500 doses, which resulted in the vaccination of 42.7% of the adults (+18) with at least one dose and to the vaccination of 18.6% of the adults with two doses. From these doses, 166,131,234 are Pfizer, 52,807,966 are AstraZeneca and the rest are Moderna, Johnson&Johnson, Sputnik V, and the Chinese vaccine.

Overall, the number of adverse reactions following the Pfizer vaccine is more than the adverse reactions of any other vaccine, but this is because of the number of doses administered so far. Who has an interest in smearing the Pfizer vaccine? In theory, any other vaccine producer. In reality, we have to wait for the official inquiry to be finished, as one of the suppositions includes even states involved in this campaign.

Photo source: Instagram Léo Grasset – French vlogger contacted to denigrate Pfizer vaccine

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Thus, 16 countries from the European Union regard Germany as their main source of imports, which means that those countries depend or rely on Germany to provide the biggest share of goods imported. In the same time, Germany becomes the largest exporter within the EU borders and the main trade partner for most of the member states.

The respective 16 countries who import goods mostly from Germany are: Austria (41% of the imports are from Germany), Bulgaria (12%), Croatia (15%), Czech Republic (28%), Denmark (22%), Finland (17%), France (17%), Greece (12%), Hungary (24%), Italy (16%), Poland (27%), Romania (21%), Slovakia (20%), Slovenia (14%), Spain (14%) and Sweden (18%).

When checking the interactive statistics of the Trade in Goods by the main 5 partners within EU, one can easily notice that, besides the German domination, countries tend to tighten their commercial bonds regionally. Thus, 41% of the imports in Austria come from Germany, but also 30% of the Austrian exports go to Germany. Also, in the Baltic area, Estonia imports 13% of the goods from Finland, but also exports to Finland 16% of the total goods exported.

At the European Union level, the statistics show that China is where most of the good are imported from, which in a certain way overthrow all the expectations regarding the main trade partner of the EU. Precisely, 22% of the goods imported in the EU are from China. In value, 383 billion Euro worth of goods arrived in EU from China in 2020. On the other hand, when it comes to exports, 18% of the total goods exported from the European Union go to the United States, with a total value of 353 billion Euro.

When it comes to globalization and to international relations, international trade is one good lead to understand the international politics. When you understand that 16 of 27 European countries depend mostly on the goods imported from Germany, when you understand that EU imports goods valued at hundreds of billions EUR and when you see the dimension of the international trade between countries or unions of countries, there is a chance you can grasp more from the way the international politics is evolving.

The big exporters, such as China, when we talk globally, or Germany, when we refer to the European region, will always dominate the markets. For having a healthy foreign trade balance, one country has to export more than it imports and the developed countries do this year after year.

Meanwhile, smaller countries struggle to improve their commercial balance. Some don’t succeed, despite their struggle and disregard of their natural wealth. Romania, as an example, has doubled its agricultural trade deficit over the last 5 years and imports 5 billion EUR worth of agricultural goods more than it exports. It’s not only sad, it’s tragic, especially for a country once known as the grain yard of Europe. The lack of processing factories for cereals, fruit and vegetables make Romania export cereals to countries which after that export back to Romania final products. It’s a lesson which Romania hasn’t learnt yet, along with most of the developing countries.

Meanwhile, Germany dominates the European Union by becoming the main trade partner to most of the member states. It’s always a good way to impose its views on the others.

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