Romania has successfully engineered one of the largest and most popular deposit-return schemes in the world. Operating under the RetuRO framework, the initiative has captured the public’s imagination and recovered billions of beverage containers. Yet, despite this triumph, Romania remains at the absolute bottom of the European Union when it comes to overall municipal waste recycling.
Read further in Romanian Dispatch #61 (8 November 2026).
Last Friday it had been 11 years since the catastrophic fire at the Colectiv nightclub claimed 65 lives. DIICOT prosecutors say a fire near an industrial platform was sabotaged by Russian operatives; the Russian ambassador was summoned. And the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant, good for 20% of the country’s electricity generation, will remain offline throughout November.
Read further in Romanian Dispatch #60 (1 November 2026).
Southeast Europe – Zuidoost-Europa correspondent
