What the Constitutional Court Decided about Wealth Statements’ Transparency

In a unanimous decision, the Constitutional Court upheld objections of unconstitutionality against key provisions of Law no. 176/2010, which previously mandated that officials’ declarations include their family members’ assets and incomes. The Court reasoned that holding officials responsible for disclosing information about their spouses or children could be unfair, and that publishing these declarations online would infringe on their privacy rights.

As a result, from now on:

• Declarations submitted to ANI will exclude spouses’ and dependent children’s assets and incomes.
• The obligation to publish asset declarations online has been abolished.
• Only the declarations submitted to ANI will be retained, but without public or media access.

Reactions: Alarm Bells from All Sides

The ruling has triggered an outcry from political leaders, civil society, and anti-corruption watchdogs:

• President Nicușor Dan described the decision as “surprising” and contrary to democratic transparency.
• The National Integrity Agency (ANI) warned that the ruling jeopardises Romania’s 20-year commitment to anti-corruption, risks damaging relations with the European Union and the OECD, and undermines the country’s international obligations.
• Six prominent NGOs urged the Court to uphold public integrity standards, emphasising that transparency is a cornerstone of the rule of law.
• Investigative journalists and activists warn that the ruling “erases years of progress” and “opens the door to illicit enrichment and corruption.”
• Some politicians, including interim Social Democrat leader Sorin Grindeanu, pledged to continue publishing their own declarations voluntarily, defying the new secrecy.

What This Means for Romania

This decision effectively blinds the public and media to the financial interests of officials’ closest family members, creating a significant loophole for hiding wealth and illicit gains. Experts warn this could:

• Facilitate undeclared transfers of assets within families.
• Severely weaken the integrity framework designed to prevent corruption.
• Undermine public trust in government institutions.
• Jeopardise Romania’s ongoing efforts to join the OECD and maintain good standing with the EU.

Coming at a time when Romania’s democracy is already fragile—after the annulment of the 2024 elections and ongoing political tensions—this ruling sends a troubling signal. The public’s right to transparency and accountability is being curtailed just as the country faces economic and political challenges.

What’s Next?

Parliament will need to amend the legislation to align with the Court’s ruling, but pressure is mounting from civil society and international partners to restore transparency. Meanwhile, the National Integrity Agency will continue collecting declarations, but without public scrutiny, the effectiveness of these declarations is in serious doubt.

The post Romania’s Constitutional Court: Transparency in Wealth Statements of Officials’ Families No Longer Needed appeared first on Valahia.News.

Hours after the court’s decision, Georgescu spoke to a Romanian TV channel. He said the country’s democracy was “under attack.” He called the verdict a “formalized coup d’état.”

He said he would “go forward through the voting process.” This implies he would try to run again for president. Yet, it’s unclear if that’s possible.

Outgoing Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that releasing declassified documents made canceling the election “the only right decision.” The results of the Romanians’ votes showed that Russia’s intervention distorted it.

On Friday evening, current President Klaus Iohannis confirmed that he would stay in the role until voters elect a new president.

He said Romania was a stable and safe country. He stressed Romania’s commitment to Europe and its NATO allyship. He called the court’s ruling vital for “national security.”

• The annulment of Romania’s presidential election has sparked a debate. It is about its impact on the country’s future.
• Russian meddling in Romania’s election is troubling. It echoes past interference in other countries.

The court announced last night that they would not review new evidence. Despite that, it convened on Friday morning to deliberate. They announced last night that they would not discuss new information on external influence on the elections.

The law says that if an election is canceled, it should resume on the second Sunday after the annulment. That would be 22nd December.

Yet, the court has decided to ask the government to rerun the entire election and campaign.

Last week, the court ordered a recount of votes from Sunday’s first round. This was due to claims that TikTok gave an edge to the surprise winner, Călin Georgescu.

The complaint that some votes may have gone to the runner-up, Elena Lasconi, was due to the recount. By Monday night, the court had dismissed the vote misallocation claims. They were baseless.

Georgescu, a radical with no party of his own, campaigned on TikTok. The platform stated that it was “false to claim it treated his account differently than any other candidate.”

He won 23% of the vote. Elena Lasconi of the opposition Save Romania Union got 19%. In a close election, the ruling Social Democrats’ Marcel Ciolacu finished third.

Lasconi called the court’s decision “illegal” and “immoral.” He said, “The Romanian state has crushed democracy.””

He added, “Like it or not, nine million Romanian citizens have cast their votes legally for a candidate.” They are both in the country and abroad.” We cannot ignore their will!” she said.

She had been aiming to win the second-round run-off on Sunday, but it has now been canceled.

This week, Georgescu denied to the BBC that he was Moscow’s man.

He claimed the political elite could not handle his success and were trying to block him.

The country is now in totally new territory politically. Now, the next steps remain unclear.

Romania’s presidential election is in chaos. The first-round results were annulled due to claims of foreign meddling. The entire election process will now start over. This raises doubts about the country’s democracy.

With high political tensions and no clear plan, Romania faces a tough road ahead. It must restore trust in its elections and protect its national security.

The post Romanian Court Overturns First-Round Presidential Election Results appeared first on Valahia.News.

According to the legal experts, those fined for not wearing the mask during the emergency state can now contest the sanctions. But the consequences are multiple, and no authority in Romania is yet prepared for what might come.

According to the initial reaction from the Government, the authorities will wait for the motivation of the decision to be issued as well. Only after that, the Government will make a decision. Still, the decision was motivated on short, and it seems that the authorities issued the ordinance without abiding by the law.

In Romania, the state of alert is prolonged every 30 days, and the people were imposed some of the most drastic measures during this pandemic. At one point, the Romanian Government decided to send the military personnel on the streets, in armoured vehicles and with machine guns, just to make sure that Romanians stayed indoors. Also, the Romanian police issued abusive fines of 4,500 EUR in local currency for those who didn’t obey the now illegal ordinance.

The Romanian Ministry of Interior admitted the police officers committed abuses during the pandemic. But this didn’t change the police officers’ behaviours, and the abusive fines were issued constantly. Tens of thousands of Romanians are fined each month for not wearing the masks. All these have solid grounds to contest the harsh decision of the authorities.

The Constitutional Court’s ruling comes when the masks are mandatory indoors and outdoors in Romania, but some disobey this rule. In the following days, it is expected for more and more people to break this illegal ordinance following the Court’s decision.

Interesting enough, on Friday, the Romanian Freedom Convoy arrives in Bucharest. Moreover, on February 27, the Opposition is organizing a big protest in Bucharest against the restrictions. The decision seems to steam off some tension before these events from this perspective.

The post Romanian Constitutional Court Rules Out Mandatory Mask appeared first on Valahia.News.

The decision was taken just days before an important anniversary: each year, on September 26, the World Contraception Day is celebrated worldwide. This is meant to raise the public attention towards the increasing number of unwanted pregnancies.

Especially in Romania, unwanted pregnancies lead to a high number of abortions. According to statistics, in Romania 400 abortions are performed daily.

On top of that, Romania is the top European country when it comes to teenage motherhood. Almost a quarter of the European teenage mothers are Romanian, according to a study of Save the Children Romania. Precisely, 23% of the underaged mothers come from Romania, a country where sexual education is not performed in schools.

The Romanian Constitutional Court’s decision comes in a context when everybody knows this phenomenon has to be stopped somehow, but nobody seems to take the decisive action. Sexual education is a taboo subject in a country where churches are being built in thousands, while hospitals are rarely remembered of when it comes to public investments.

Besides, even if the parents do offer their consent, children will take part at “sanitary education” lessons, the word “sexual education” being avoided by the law makers.

The post Romanian Constitutional Court: Sexual Education in Schools Allowed Only with Parents’ Consent appeared first on Valahia.News.

The Romanian flag has its colours displayed vertically, but it hasn’t always been like that. There were times when the flag had the colours displayed horizontally. Some regret that period, others prefer the current flag.

One of the interesting facts about the Romanian flag is that, in 2013, Romania held the world record for the biggest flag in the world. It measured about 349 x 227 meters (1,145 x 744.5ft), about three times the size of a football field. Guinness World of Records officially mentioned the Romanian Flag.

​Romanian Flag – History of the Flag

Many of you may wonder what is the meaning of the Romanian Flag. The Romanian flag has its own history, which we believe is worth telling.

The first time when the Romanian flag’s tricolour was blue, yellow and red was in 1834. They used to symbolize merchant flags as well as native militia units flags. In the beginning, the colours were displayed horizontally. However, the revolutionary government in Bucharest emphasized the vertical arrangement. They believed that having blue at the hoist will make the flag more popular.

In 1859, the Romanian Tricolor became the National Flag. Regardless of the revolutionary government’s opinion, the Romanian flag arrangement was horizontal until 1862. Luckily, in 1867, the flag was changed to vertical alignment, having blue at upraise.

During 1948, the Romanian flag went through a lot of changes. This time, the national flag design tampered with a coat of arms. The National Coat of Arms represented a blue shield featuring a golden eagle with a mace and sword with a cross in its beak. The shield displays emblems of Wallachia, Moldavia, Oltenia, Banat, Transylvania and Dobrogea.

Believe it or not, this version was also changed four times until the end of the Communist Regime in December 1989. The end of the communist era came with the final change in the Romanian flag – they re-established it to its original colours.

In 1991 the Romanian Constitution was adopted. In one of its parts, it was declared that “the flag of Romania is tricolour; the colours are arranged vertically in the following order from the mast: blue, yellow, (and) red”. Finally, in 1998, the Romanian law attributed June 26 as Romanian National Flag Day.

​Romanian Flag – What do the colors represent?

As you saw, three vertical bands: blue, yellow and red compose the State Flag. At first sight, it may seem like basic tricolour colours. However, there is a great deal of meaning behind these colours. Since 1821, it was clear that the three colours of the National Flag of Romanian will symbolize freedom, justice and brotherhood.

If we take a look at the tricolour, we will see the first colour is blue. Located at the hoist side, the cobalt blue represents liberty and freedom. In the middle of the flag, there is yellow, which symbolizes justice. The final band, red, represents the nation’s fraternity.

Even if the flag has changed throughout time, it always had the same emotional meaning for all Romanians.

​Why do Romania and Chad have nearly identical flags?

A controversial fact about the Romanian flag is its similarity with the Chad flag, to the point of confusion. Could you tell the difference just by looking at the picture below?

For all those who haven’t realized yet, the Romanian flag is above the Chad flag. The similarity is confusing, right?

There are opinions asking for a change here, but first of all, Romania has to change its Constitution in order to modify the flag. One of the proposed changes was for the flag to display the Romanian national emblem in the middle, on the yellow part, but this also would create confusion with the Republic of Moldova flag.

This subject is rather controversial and not a pleasant topic for everyone. Let us tell you why! We will try to present you the facts as they happened.

The year 1866 was the first time the country used the flag. This marks the time when Walachia changed the National Flag to blue, yellow and red after the unification with Moldova against the Ottoman Empire.

On the other side, we have Chad. Chad is a relatively small country from Central Africa. Like it or not, they kind of decided to steal the Romanian flag in 1960, after the country gained its independence from France.

The first relations between the two countries Romania-Chad took place in 1966. Even so, neither of them have an embassy in the other country until today. Throughout time, Romania and Chad have interacted both economically and politically.

In 2004 things took an unexpected turn. Reports stated that Chad has requested United Nations to check into the issue of Romania having the same flag as Chad. Since 2004, Chad has been denying that Romania was the first country to use the National Tricolor of blue, yellow and red. Romania’s President at that time, Ion Iliescu, declared publicly that Romania will not change its flag. “The tricolour belongs to us. We will not give up the tricolour” were his exact words.

After this incident, Romania and Chad had no more relations, whether positive or negative. It may come as a surprise, but the issue has remained unsolved until nowadays.

The only difference between the two flags is that Romania has a cobalt blue, whereas Chad has an indigo blue. It is not easy to spot, because such colour difference is only visible for those with a very particular eye.

Romanian Flag Emoji

What is social media without emoji? Good news for all social media lovers, you can find the Romanian flag emoji. Click here to get your Romanian flag emoji for Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. This online emoji platform is just one of the many. You can find out your favourite one online.

All things considered, the National Flag of Romania went through a lot in order to reach its final version. No matter the circumstances, it has succeeded in keeping Romanians together. “Freedom, justice and brotherhood” will always have a special place in Romanians’ hearts.

If you happen to visit Romania, we suggest you check out VisitBucharest today. This platform will show you everything you need to know not only about Bucharest but also about Romania. You can also try the mobile version here.

The post Romanian Flag appeared first on Valahia.News.

The fact is that up to 31 March, the fines were issued within certain limits. After that, the Liberal Government decided to issue Ordinance 34/2020 to increase their quantum. Thus, from 1100 USD the maximum fines reached 4,500 USD. Moreover, the persons couldn’t pay half of the minimum of the fine anymore in a certain amount of time, but only from the amount of the fine issued on their name.

The minister of Interior admitted abuses are committed by Romanian Police and all the other authorities. Romanian Ombudsman contested the legality of the Ordinance 34/2020 before the Constitutional Court and it proved the ordinance was not constitutional.

What happens from now on?

It seems that those who have already paid the fines issued under this ordinance cannot get their money back. Yet, they can sue the authorities in court, hoping for a favorable decision.

On the other hand, those who haven’t paid the fines so far will not be forced to pay them as the legal act which enforced the fines is not constitutional.

The authorities will still be able to issue fines, but only the ones mentioned by the previous law where the maximum fine was “only” 1100 USD.

The post Romanian Constitutional Court: The Fines Issued during Lockdown Are Not Constitutional appeared first on Valahia.News.