KEY STORIES TODAY Move to legalise cannabis in severe medical cases / Court blow to major corruption cases / Government moves to solve 5G issue

Prominent politicians facing corruption charges prepare for their cases to restart from scratch in wake of a Constitutional Court decision. Also today – key governmental and Social Democratic Party leadership decisions. And a move to legalise cannabis for severe medical cases.

• Terminally ill patients in Romania might obtain access to cannabis-based, prescription painkillers by filling in a special form, according to a bill submitted in the Parliament on Wednesday, which was seen by HotNews.ro. The bill, named „Victoria” after a woman killed by cancer earlier this year, whose daughter collected 20,000 signatures to legalise cannabis for medical purposes, is supported by 100 MPs from across the political spectrum. More on this in Romanian here

• Many corruption cases in Romania may start all over again in the wake of a Constitutional Court ruling on Wednesday. Cases which have been judged by panels of 3 judges at the High Court – panels deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court – but which have not received final sentence will start again from scratch. A key attorney explained for HotNews.ro that beneficiaries of the decision would include former ministers Elena Udrea or Dan Sova, but also Darius Valcov, until recently seen as the brains behind the economic measures of the Dancila government and a crony of ex-Social Democratic leader Liviu Dragnea. More on this in Romanian here

• An informal meeting of the governing Social Democrats (PSD) on Wednesday evening saw PM Viorica Dancila, freshly elected leader of the party, orchestrating the suspension of Robert Negoita, a Bucharest district mayor critical of her leadership, but also the removal of influential politician Serban Nicolae as head of the PSD group in the Senate, according to party sources. Nicolae is expected to be replace by his second in command, Senator Liviu Lucian Mazilu. More on this in Romanian here

• Romania’s Government used an emergency ordinance on Wednesday to correct provisions of an older ordinance which made it impossible for the government to launch a tender for new frequencies for 5G services. The reasoning for the new ordinance was the need to collect the money from such tenders to the state budget to prevent a budget deficit. More on this in Romanian here