1 Leu Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Romania held the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU for the first time in the first half of 2019 — a significant administrative milestone for a country that had only joined the bloc in 2007. The presidency coincided with a period of acute domestic tension, as the ruling Social Democratic Party was simultaneously under pressure from street protests and EU criticism over judicial independence reforms that many observers argued undermined anti-corruption mechanisms.

Tombac, a brass alloy with a high copper content, was a common choice for Romanian commemorative leu issues of this period before the copper-plated steel transition in circulation coinage.