11 March, 2019

A roundup of the main stories in Romania.

Newsroom, 11.03.2019, 13:42

Budget bill. The two-chamber
Parliament in Bucharest will re-discuss the 2019 budget bill this week at the
request of president Klaus Iohannis. The government majority formed by the
Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats say they
won’t make any changes to the bill because its current provisions ensure the
necessary resources in the important sectors of the economy. The opposition
say, however, that the budget cannot come into force in its current version,
which is one of stagnation and under-development. Once the bill returns to the
president, the latter is obliged to sign it into law. He sent the bill back to
Parliament after the Constitutional Court dismissed his objections regarding
the way the bill was drawn up. The government say Iohannis’ move is a political
gesture ahead of the presidential elections later this year.

EU. The EU
ministers for European affairs are meeting in Bucharest today and tomorrow as
part of the General Affairs Council to debate the multiannual financial
framework for 2021-2027 and the priorities guiding the Union’s activity in the
next five years. The meeting organised by Romania’s presidency of the Council
of the EU is attended by the first vice-president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans and the European
commissioner for budget and human resources Günther Oettinger. On the sidelines
of the meeting, Romania’s presidency of the Council of the EU is today
organising an informal meeting attended by representatives of the EU candidate
countries Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and
Turkey and of the European Commission.

Meetings. The
Romanian finance minister Eugen Teodorovici is today attending in Brussels a meeting in the format of the
enlarged Eurogroup and chairing the high-level talks on the macroeconomic
dialogue. The main topics on the agenda of talks include an information by the
European Commission on the main findings
of the 2nd enhanced surveillance mission to Greece, a
thematic discussion on growth and jobs, the housing markets and Latvia’s
updated draft budget plan. On Tuesday, the Romanian minister will chair the
third meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN), whose
agenda includes the general regime of excise duties and the taxation of digital
services.

Tennis. World no. 2 Simona Halep of Romania on Tuesday faces Marketa
Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in the round of last 16 of the tennis
tournament in Indian Wells, the US, worth more than 9 million dollars in prize
money. On Sunday, Halep defeated Ukraine’s Katerina Kozlova in straight sets.
In the men’s doubles, the Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer
also reached the round of last 16 after defeating the Hungarian-Argentine pair Martons
Fucsovics and Guido Pella in straight sets. Today, they will be facing the pair
seeded 8th, Finland’s Henri Kontinen and Australia’s John
Peers.

Handball. The Romanian women’s handball champions
CSM Bucharest will be playing the French side Metz in the Champions League
quarterfinals. The first leg will take place in Bucharest between the 5th
and the 7th of April, and the return match a week later in France.
The Romanian media expect these to be difficult matches for CSM considering
that Metz are the winners of the Main Round Group 1, while the Romanian side
had a mediocre run, finishing fourth in Group 2. The Final4 matches will take
place in Budapest on the 11th and 12th of May. CSM
Bucharest won the Champions League trophy in 2016 at their first participation.