November 17, 2018
Top-level EU officials to visit Romania ahead of EU Council presidency term
Newsroom, 17.11.2018, 13:50
VISIT The president of the European Court of Auditors, Klaus-Heiner Lehne, will be on an official visit to Romania on November 19 and 20, in the context of Romania taking over the rotating presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019. Klaus-Heiner Lehne will have meetings, among others, with the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, PM Viorica Dăncilă, the speakers of the 2 chambers of Parliament, the Minister for Public Finances Eugen Teodorovici, and with the Minister Delegate for European Affairs, George Ciamba. Several top-level EU officials will also be in Bucharest next week, including the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani. They will discuss topics of interest for the future of the Union and for the proper management, during Romanias EU Council presidency, of several major dossiers, such as the multi-annual financial framework, the post-Brexit situation of the European bloc and the security policy. The Romanian PM reiterated that Bucharest is prepared to take over the EU presidency and said the action plan is ready, the operation mechanisms are in place and the means of implementing the action plan has been defined.
FINANCIAL Fitch agencys announcement regarding Romanias country rating is a confirmation of the fact that Romania has a sustainable economic growth, and contributes to strengthening investors confidence in the national economy, said the Minister for Public Finances Eugen Teodorovici, after Fitch confirmed the “BBB minus rating for Romanias long-term foreign currency debt, with a stable outlook. The expansionist fiscal policy launched in 2016 has weakened Romanias public finances, Fitch experts say, adding that in the first 9 months of this year revenues stand at only 69% of the revised annual targets, and the budget deficit is one percentage point above the figure in January – September 2017. However, Fitch expects the Government to meet its 2.96% deficit target for this year, so as to avoid the excessive deficit procedure. The international financial rating agency estimates a 3.5% economic growth rate for Romania this year, 3.2% in 2019 and 3% in 2020, reflecting the slow-down in the EU, a tightening monetary policy and a reduction in tax incentives.
GAUDEAMUS Book launches continue today, as part of the Gaudeamus Book and Education Fair organised by Radio Romania in Bucharest. Until the end of this 25th edition of the Fair on Sunday, visitors will be able to attend various events and benefit from substantial discounts offered by the over 300 participating publishers. The central theme of the current edition is the Romanian Union Centennial, and is illustrated by a representative stand, hosting around 600 volumes devoted to this historic event and scores of events, launches, debates, film screenings and public lectures. The stand also enables the public to meet and talk to some of the most important Romanian writers, literary critics and historians.
START-UPS Romanian entrepreneurs interested in the Start-Up Nation programme, designed to encourage the set-up of small and medium-sized enterprises by means of non-reimbursable grants, will be able to use a special software as of December 1. According to the Minister for Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship, Ştefan Radu Oprea, applications can be submitted for one month. Last year in the Start-Up Nation programme, over 30,000 applications were submitted, the Minister added, more than 8,000 contracts were signed, of which 7,200 projects are still active, and over 21,000 jobs have been created.
CENTENNIAL The members of the Romanian ethnic community in Hungary are celebrating today the Great Union Centennial in Gyula. The event is part of a series devoted to the 100 years since Greater Romania was founded, and it brings together officials and personalities from major Romanian academic centres, Romanian MPs and local authorities. The event also has a component devoted to the Romanian ethnics in Hungary: a ceremony in which representatives of the Romanian community in Hungary, including headmasters of schools with Romanian tuition, are awarded by the “Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi Institute for Romanians abroad. The ceremony will be followed by the screening of a film about the 1918 Union and the opening of an art exhibition on the same theme.
(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)
