January 4, 2025 UPDATE
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 04.01.2025, 19:10
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.
Police. More than 15,500 missing persons, including almost 10,000 minors, were found last year by the police officers working for the Directorate for Criminal Investigations. The General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police says some 3,500 wanted persons were tracked last year, of whom around 2,700 had prison convictions and 430 were on temporary arrest warrants. Also, almost 280 persons were found for whom European arrest warrants has been issued.
Golden Globes. Romanian-American actor Sebastian Stan has two nominations to this year’s edition of the Golden Globes for his roles in “The Apprentice”, where he played Donald Trump, and in “A Different Man”. Stan became famous after playing Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Golden Globes are awarding the film and television industry in the United States and are considered a preview to the Oscars.
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 drew 31-all against Serbia on Saturday. They will next play 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 2nd, 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.
