May 12, 2023 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of local and world news

Newsroom, 12.05.2023, 20:00

GOVERNMENT The Government of Romania passed an emergency
order on rebalancing the state budget, in a special meeting on Friday, the
finance minister Adrian Câciu announced. He outlined the key measures in the plan, including a 10% reduction on
expenditure with products and services, except for expenses in public
healthcare and education, and a ban on procuring, leasing and rentals of automobiles
and office equipment in public institutions. One exception is the car scrapping
programme for the public authorities purchasing non-polluting vehicles. The
programme is designed to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport
sector, by encouraging the use of eco-friendly vehicles. The
finance minister also announced that the number of advisers to officials in
central administration structures, currently standing at around 900, will be
reduced by one-half following the implementation of the emergency order aimed
at making public spending more efficient.

INFLATION In Romania,
the year-on-year inflation rate dropped significantly in April, to 11.23% compared
to nearly 15% in March. While this does not mean that products and services are
growing cheaper, the rise in prices has nonetheless slowed down. According to
data released by the National Statistics Institute on Friday, there are
products that were more affordable in April than in March, including sunflower
oil. Also on Friday, the National Bank confirmed that this downward trend in
consumer price increase will continue. But the central bank governor Mugur
Isărescu also warned those who have or are planning to take out loans in
foreign currencies, and said that interest rates for the euro and US dollar
will increase further. The National Bank forecasts a 7.1% inflation rate for
the end of this year, as against 7% announced previously, and a 4.2% rate for
the end of next year. Mugur Isărescu added that prices for fruit and vegetables
will likely continue to go up for another 2 months, as the yield will be
affected by the weather conditions in Europe, the drought in Spain and the
aftermath of the earthquakes in Turkey.

ENERGY The Polytechnic University in Bucharest officially launched
the first NuScale Energy Exploration (E2) Centre outside the United States on
Friday. The centre hosts a simulator of the NuScale Power’s VOYGR™ small
modular reactor (SMR) power plant control room, and will educate and train the
next generation of nuclear engineers to operate advanced civil nuclear reactor
technologies while establishing Romania as a regional educational and training
hub for the next stage of civil nuclear deployments across Romania and Europe,
reads a news release issued by the US Embassy in Bucharest.

MUSEUMS
The National Network of Romanian Museums has announced an absolute record
number of cultural events enlisted as part of the Night of Museums – 297 in
Romania and 14 in the Republic of Moldova. Bucharest will host around 60 events
proposed by museums, art galleries, cultural centres, opera houses, choirs,
palaces, institutes, high schools and music festivals. The special guest of the
current edition is the War Childhood Museum, for the first time in Romania. The
exhibition, entitled Listen, is hosted by the Romanian Peasant Museum. Access
is free of charge.

AWARD – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will receive the Franz
Werfel Human Rights Award granted by the German Centre against Expulsions, DPA
reports. Aged 63, Iohannis will become the 11th winner of this award, granted
to him for his tireless and multilateral commitment to defending human rights
and minority rights in Romania and Europe. The award, granted every two years,
comes along with a money prize of 10,000 euros. Among the previous laureates
are former German president Joachim Gauck, the winner of Nobel prize in
Literature, Herta Muller and historian Karl Schlögel. The prize will be awarded
during a ceremony held on June 4 in Frankfurt, Germany, when a congratulatory
speech will delivered by former European Commission President Jean Claude
Juncker.

YOUTH Over 1,400 Romanian 18-year olds are among the 35,000 beneficiaries
of free EU travel passes granted this year under the Discover EU programme. In
order to find out more about the culture and history of the EU and to come in
touch with people across the continent, the beneficiaries will be able to
travel by train, individually or in groups of up to 5 people, between June 2023
and September 2024. The current round of the programme saw more than 145,000 applicants
from EU member states and Erasmus Plus countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein,
Norway, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey). (AMP)