2 August 2018, UPDATE

Romania on track to meet budget deficit target of 3% of the GDP – Prime Minister Viorica Dancila says.

Newsroom, 02.08.2018, 19:03

Budget. Prime minister Viorica Dancila said
on Thursday that Romania would meet the budget deficit target of 3% of the GDP
and that the first budget adjustment this year would be positive, given
additional revenues of almost 6 billion lei. She said the adjustment seeks to
ensure the necessary sums for investment projects, to support the environment
and reduce the sums allocated to institutions that have not used up the
allocated money. Viorica Dancila also said the pensions budget would receive a
further 850 million lei. More money will go to the local authorities,
healthcare, education, agriculture, transports, the interior ministry and ANAF.
Cuts will be made to the budgets of the Romanian Intelligence Service, the
Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service, the Environment Ministry, the Foreign
Ministry and the Energy Ministry. The government order to approve the budget adjustment
will be adopted in the second part of August.

Offshore bill. Romania’s president
Klaus Iohannis on Thursday sent back to Parliament for re-examination a bill on
the exploitation of natural oil and gas deposits in the offshore areas located
in the Black Sea exclusive economic area. The president says the bill does not
ensure long-term stability and predictability and may affect budget revenues.
He also says the law stipulates that the sums resulting from royalties and the
tax on additional offshore returns are to go to a special fund used for
financing public-private partnership contracts without any prior studies being
made. The president says the offshore bill was passed by Parliament without
respecting the bicameral principle. MPs passed the bill amending the offshore
law in an extraordinary session on the 12th of July.

Visit. Great
Britain is one of Romania’s most important strategic partners, said defence
minister Mihai Fifor on Thursday after talks with British defence secretary Gavin Williamson. According to
Fifor, the talks looked at the security situation in Romania’s neighbourhood,
with emphasis on Russia’s actions, namely Moscow’s intention to militarise the
Black Sea by boosting the number of troops in the region and deploying new
capabilities. Gavin Williamson said Romania and Britain share the same values,
such as democracy, justice and tolerance. The British official said the
cooperation between the two states was very important and Romania’s role in the
NATO alliance was vital for Europe’s security, especially amid the tense
environment in the region, such as the conflict in Ukraine. Also on Thursday,
the two ministers visited the 57th Air Base in Mihail Kogalniceanu,
south-eastern Romania, where they met the flight and technical crews of the
four Typhoon fighter jets of the British Air Forces and the Romanian military
personnel at the base. A British military brigade comprising 160 soldiers is in
Mihail Kogalniceanu until late August to undergo air policing missions under
NATO command.

Roma Holocaust. The Romanian
diplomacy on Thursday paid homage to the Roma who suffered during World War Two.
2nd of August marked the 74th anniversary of events in
1944 when around 3,000 Roma from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp were exterminated.
The Elie Wiesel Institute in Bucharest also commemorated the victims of the
Roma genocide during WWII, warning that society is still vulnerable to
discrimination and racism. The Romanian government has promised to do more to
ensure the right of all members of ethnic minorities to preserve and freely
develop their ethnic identity. In 2015, the European Parliament officially
recognised 2nd of August as European Roma Holocaust Memorial
Day.

Virus. The owners of the animals
slaughtered for being suspected of carrying the African swine fever virus will
be compensated in the amount of 2 euros per kilogram, the National Food Safety
Authority president Geronimo Branescu has announced. The authorities have
called on the population to cooperate in order to prevent the spreading of this
virus, for which no vaccine or treatment has yet been found. The number of
swine fever hotbeds is around 550.

Festival. The electronic music festival Untold has got under
way in Cluj-Napoca, central Romania. Some 350,000 people from Romania and
another 75 countries are expected to attend the festival until August 5. This
year, organisers have set up 10 stages to host the 250 artists who will perform
live, including The Chainsmokers, Armin van Buuren, Tiesto, Tujamo and
Afrojack. Authorities say they have taken all measures in order to make Untold
the safest festival in Europe. Over 1,100 gendarme and police forces,
firefighters and medical staff will ensure public safety and provide emergency
care. Scores of video surveillance cameras have been set up around the stages.