The Senate’s defence committee and representatives of the defence ministry had talks at the Parliament about the need to amend the legislation to allow the military to destroy suspicious drones entering Romania’s airspace. The debate was prompted by the fact that in the last year, a number of Russian drones ended up illegally on Romanian territory, in the context of the war in neighbouring Ukraine.
MPs believe it is necessary to add certain provisions to the legislation with respect to the capacity of reaction to the entry into national airspace of hostile or unauthorised drones. They requested the representatives of the defence ministry for further clarifications on this subject, said the chair of the defence committee Nicoleta Pauliuc at the end of the talks in the Senate:
“We all agreed, during the debates, that the entering of a Russian drone into our airspace 40 km inside the territory and over 40 minutes can be considered a vulnerability in the context of a lack of legislation setting the rules of engagement. We talked about the need to pass bills that allow the defence ministry to carry out its missions. We talked about the need for the defence ministry, via the government, to go to Parliament for these bills to be fast-tracked.”
The spokesman for the defence ministry Constantin Spînu gave assurances that the Romanian airspace is well defended at the moment, but admits that the legislation in the field needs to be improved. He said the package of national security laws will soon be adopted by the government and later submitted to Parliament to be passed. Constantin Spînu:
“We need legislative clarifications to simplify our procedures as much as possible and to shorten the chain of command in such situations. The legislation we’re currently working with dates back from 2001, there are clear rules that we are to engage gradually with piloted aircraft. This is the legislation we are working with when it comes to drones, so we can only act when an intentional attack is expected or estimated, a hostile action against Romanian or NATO territory.”
Senator Cristian Berea from the Save Romania Union in opposition and a member of the defence committee criticised the absence of defence minister Angel Tîlvăr from the talks in Parliament. He does not expect a new law in the field to be passed this year. Moreover, the Save Romania Union summoned the defence minister to appear as part of the government hour on 8th October to provide explanations about the repeated violation of Romanian airspace by Russian drones.
Speaking about the drone that entered Romanian territory on Saturday night, the minister said “current assessments show the drone did not have a hostile behaviour, and that if that had been the case, we know what we have to do. Such situations were also encountered in Poland and Latvia”, said Angel Tîlvăr.
(Daniela Budu, Radio Romania International)
