Romania

Energy companies OMV Petrom and Romgaz on Wednesday backed plans to develop the Domino and Pelican Sud commercial natural gas fields in the Romanian Neptun Deep perimeter in the Black Sea.

The two companies will invest up to 4 billion euros for the development phase of the project, which will generate production of about 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas over ten years.

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate, who was detained in Romania, has been charged with rape, human trafficking and setting up an organized crime ring to sexually exploit women. His brother Tristan and two of his associates face the same charges.

Both of them denied the charges.

The Romanian organised crime prosecutors on Tuesday charged brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate with organising a criminal group, aggravated human trafficking, aggravated rape, unlawful access to a computer system, tampering with the integrity of computer data and instigating battery or other violence.

Turkish company Kalyon has signed an agreement to build more than a 300-kilometer-long pipeline in Romania that will transport natural gas from the Black Sea.

The size of the Tuzla-Podisor gas transmission pipeline project is around 500 million euros, according to a statement released by the Romanian national gas transmission company Transgaz.

The sea water along the Bulgarian Black Sea is safe for bathing and there is currently no evidence of impending pollution. This was stated by the chief state health inspector Assoc. Angel Kunchev in connection with concerns about sea water pollution after the spilling of the waters from the "Nova Kakhovka" dam into the Black Sea, BNT reported.

Animal rights activists and environmental NGOs on Friday condemned an order allowing hundreds of bears to be killed signed by the former Environment minister of Romania, Tanczos Barna, on the last day of his mandate at the ministry.

The order allows a quota of almost 500 bears to be killed on the grounds that they pose a danger to humans.

With 290 votes "for", 95 "against" and no abstentions, the two chambers of the Romanian Parliament elected the new Romanian government headed by Marcel Ciolacu. Deputies voted first, then senators.

418 people's representatives out of a total of 465 were present in the hall during today's vote of confidence and the debates, marked by scandal and sharp exchange of remarks.

Romania's new Prime Minister has worked his way up from a low-ranking post in the Social Democrats to the top, while shrugging off various controversies and scandals on the way.

In 2022, 95.3 million people in the European Union were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, i.e. they lived in households with serious financial difficulties. This is according to data from the Eurostat statistical office. They remain almost unchanged from the previous year, when 95.4 million people lived at risk of poverty.

Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca has resigned.

He announced this himself minutes ago at a press conference at the Council of Ministers on Victoria Square in Bucharest, BTA reported.