January 4, 2025
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 04.01.2025, 14:05
Budget. Romanian finance minister Tanczos Barna said the state budget for this year will be drafted by the end of the month. He explained that the next budget will be based on a 7% deficit of GDP, as agreed with the European Union, with no other fiscal measures. We can no longer afford increases and further costs and institutions need to implement more efficient management and internal reorganisation to cut costs on wide scale, said Barna. For 2025, he estimated an economic growth rate of 2.5% and an inflation rate of 5%.
Defence. The Pentagon has awarded an American defence company a contract worth around 950 million dollars to supply Patriot air defence systems to Romania. The deadline is 31st December 2029. The defence news service The Defence Post notes that the contract marks Romania’s third order of Patriot systems, following previous acquisitions in 2017 and 2020. Last autumn, Bucharest donated one of its ground-to-air Patriot systems to Ukraine, worth 60 million dollars. The Romanian defence ministry said at the time that a similar system would be purchased from the US government, to be financed mainly from non-reimbursable external sources.
Schengen. The Romanian border police are conducting daily checks near the borders with Bulgaria and Hungary, following Romania’s full entry into the Schengen free-movement area on 1st January. While checks are no longer conducted when crossing the border, hundreds of police and gendarmerie forces are conducting random inspections of papers and goods in order to prevent illegal migration and smuggling. A spokesman for the Romanian Police said Romania will be working more closely with international partners to combat cross-border crime, including people trafficking, smuggling and economic and judicial crimes. 40 customs points have been eliminated across Romania following the country’s Schengen entry, and their staff assigned elsewhere.
Handball. After winning their opening match against Turkey 35-26, on the first day of the Carpaţi Trophy held in Mioveni, in southern Romania, the national men’s handball side are facing Serbia today, before taking on Georgia on Sunday. Romania will also play a number of friendly matches with Spain between 8th and 11th January. The World Championship is taking place between January 14th and February 2, but Romania failed to qualify, being eliminated in the play-off by the Czech Republic. Romania last participated in a World Championship in 2011, when it finished in 19th place, the lowest ranking in the 14 times it took part in a final tournament. Romania won the world title four times in their heyday, in 1961, 1964, 1970 and 1974, but the last time it has won a medal was in 1990, when it came in third.
