Von der Leyen to visit Romania and Bulgaria amid Black Sea drone attacks on ships

Visit schedule

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, is due in Romania on Monday, 9 November 2026, as part of a tour of the Black Sea region. The Presidential Administration says she will meet President Nicușor Dan at the Cotroceni Palace at 15:30. Romania's Commission representation adds that she will also hold talks that day with Prime Minister Luca Niculescu. Dan and von der Leyen last met on 1 September 2025, when they visited the Mihail Kogălniceanu military base and the port of Constanța together, and they had earlier talked in Brussels on 26 June 2025 for about 30 minutes.

The tour continues in Varna, Bulgaria, on Tuesday, 10 November, where she is to meet Prime Minister Rumen Radev and visit the naval academy. On Wednesday, 11 November, she is scheduled to attend the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkey. Dublin follows on Thursday, 12 November, for a meeting of the European political committee, and an informal meeting of European Council members is planned for Friday, 13 November.

Drone strikes on Black Sea shipping

The visit comes after a run of drone strikes on commercial vessels in the Black Sea, several of them off the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria. Politico, citing three Commission officials, reports that at least seven commercial vessels were struck by drones in October, leaving two sailors dead and at least 25 missing. A separate count attributed to Reuters puts the October toll higher, at nine ships hit off the two countries and about 34 sailors dead or missing. One case is the Wine Trader, which was heading to the port of Giurgiulești to load vegetable oils when it was attacked. The Free Navigators' Union said that as of 19 October five crew members had been rescued and seven were still missing, and that the ship had no link to Ukraine.

Romania's position and the Bulgarian shore

Romania blames Russia and warns that the strikes are part of Moscow's escalating aggression against Ukraine. Nicușor Dan said Romania had asked for additional counter-drone, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, while NATO announced in October that it would step up surveillance with maritime patrol aircraft, radars, drones and specialist personnel. Bulgaria has stopped short of formally blaming Moscow and refers only to drones coming from 'an eastern direction'. A drone washed up near the coastal town of Shabla, and the local mayor, Mariyan Zhechev, said it appeared to have been carried ashore by the sea. Its origin and any link to the recent attacks on shipping have not been established. Bulgarian broadcaster bTV reported simultaneous missions by Italian, British and American reconnaissance aircraft over the region, and France has extended the deployment of a maritime patrol aircraft in Romania.

Open questions about the trip

Details of the itinerary remain scarce, and some offices of European commissioners were reportedly not informed of the planned visit. It is also unclear whether European Council President António Costa or EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas will travel with her. The plans come as NATO allies step up surveillance over the Black Sea. Politico links the trip to security tensions along NATO's eastern flank, which have risen since the attacks on commercial shipping.