February 4, 2020 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 04.02.2020, 20:24

MOTION The leadership of Parliament in Bucharest has decided that the
censure motion tabled by the opposition Social Democrats (PSD) against the
Liberal government be subjected to debates and voted upon on Wednesday
afternoon. The PSD move comes after the government led by Prime Minister
Ludovic Orban assumed responsibility for a draft law on returning to the
two-round election of mayors. Signed by 208 MPs, the motion was read on Monday
before Parliament in plenary session. According to the signatories, the
government must be dismissed for having amended the election law shortly before
the upcoming election, which runs against Constitutional Court rulings and
recommendations from European institutions. In order for the government to be
sacked, the motion needs to be endorsed by 233 MPs.

VISIT Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will be meeting the European
Council President Charles Michel in Brussels on Friday. According to the
Romanian presidential administration, the meeting will focus on negotiations
over the 2021-2027 EU budget. This is part of a string of meetings that the
president of the European Council is having with leaders of the EU member
states with a view to preparing the extraordinary summit on February 20th,
devoted to the next multi-annual budget.

RESERVES The Romanian Central
Bank’s currency reserves have increased by 8% as against last year. According
to data provided by the bank, the level of the gold reserve has remained at
103.6 tonnes, worth some 5 billion Euros. At the end of last month, the bank’s
hard currency reserve stood at 35.5 billion Euros, as compared to little under
32 billion in late 2019. The increase is due mainly to the collection of 3
billion Euros resulting from the Euro bonds emissions placed two weeks ago. Experts
say that, because of the size of its economy, Romania cannot place itself among
the Europe countries with large international reserves, but its reserve is
consolidated.

(translated by bill)