January 18, 2024 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 18.01.2024, 19:52
LAWS The government
in Bucharest on Thursday endorsed a series of bills to implement the solutions
agreed upon after the talks it had with transporters and farmers following the
latter’s protests of late. Among them there are amendments to the ways of
weighing products at the border checkpoints. Aspects regarding the periodical
technical checking of the vehicles registered in Romania and the professional
certification of the specialized personnel in the field of road transportation
have also been clarified. Under the new amendments, the prices of the mandatory
insurance for trucks will go down. In another development, the government is
granting a direct support of 100 Euros per hectare to the producers of
vegetables in order to offset the losses they incurred due to the war in
Ukraine. Farmers and transporters of Romania carried on their protests on
Thursday for the ninth day in a row. They took to the streets of Afumati, a
commune close to Bucharest, and to the checkpoints at the border with Ukraine. Also
on Thursday, the mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, announced the local
authorities approved a fresh protest on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in
Bucharest. Five thousand people, 100 tractors and 100 tractor heads are to
participate in the aforementioned protest. Another professional category who is protesting against the
government’s austerity measures these days is the family physicians and the
medical personnel in the outpatient care units.
RATE According
to data released by the EU statistical office, EUROSTAT, Romania was among the
EU countries with the highest inflation rate, in December last year. The average
inflation rate at EU level stood at 3.4 % in December higher than a month
before, when it reached 3.1%. The EU members with the highest inflation rates
were the Czech Republic with 7.6%, Romania with 7% and Slovakia with 6.6%. The
lowest inflation rates were reported in Denmark, 0.4%, Italy and Belgium, each
with 0.5%. As compared to November 2023, the annual inflation rate went down in
15 member states, was stable in Spain and rose in 11 countries.
DEFICIT Romania’s
budget deficit this year will be around 5% of the GDP, Finance Minister Marcel
Bolos has announced. He said that Romania is among the countries with significant
deficits, and that ten countries, including Poland and France will enter the excessive
deficit procedure. According to Bolos, the government in Bucharest has to carry
on its fiscal-budgetary measures, projects related to digitization, or aimed at
implementing an improved collection of taxes and fighting tax evasion.
EU The
European Commission has announced it kicked off a detailed research into the
legislation of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, the first step in the process
of the two countries’ EU accession. The Commission is concurrently assessing
the way in which, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova have already applied what
the EU has requested as a preliminary condition. The Community Executive is
working on a draft of the negotiation framework with the two states, a document
to be submitted to the Council for approval, which will also mark the formal
opening of the accession negotiations. The decision to launch this process was made
by the European Council in December 2023.
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