October 20, 2017 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 20.10.2017, 20:03
DEFENCE Romanian Defence Minister, Mihai Fifor said in Krakow on Friday that it was time for Romania and Poland to step up their cooperation including in the field of defence. The Romanian official made the statement during a meeting he had with members of the Romanian community and Polish students who are studying Romanian at the Jagiellonian University. Fifor underlined the old friendship relation between the two countries and their very good cooperation inside the Strategic Partnership. On Thursday, the Romanian Minister participated in the inauguration of the NATO Counterintelligence Center of Excellence together with his counterparts from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. On this occasion, Fifor said Romania had supported the project of setting up this centre from the very beginning, as this institution is needed for the training of NATO experts in the field. During his visit to Poland, the Romanian official has also met Romanian officers deployed to this country as part of the US-led NATO Battle Group for the period September 2017 — March 2018.
SUMMIT The European Council president Donald Tusk announced on Friday, the last day of the Brussels summit, the beginning of the interior procedure for the second phase of the Brexit negotiations with Britain’s representatives. Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said after the summit that the message conveyed by the EU leaders was a positive one, as they want to create ‘a better Union closer to the citizen.’ Asked by the journalists what he thought about the fact that British Prime Minister Theresa May had admitted that talks with the EU had reached a deadlock, the Romanian official said that nobody was trying to halt the negotiations, but there was no guarantee that headway would be made until December this year. The Romanian president said that the latest European Council session also included talks on migration, which in his opinion, was the first in a positive and optimistic tone. Iohannis added that this summer saw an increased number of migrants coming via the Black Sea without this being a mass phenomenon. Iohannis announced that Romania had decided together with the countries participating in the summit to back the Nuclear Agreement with Iran. The EU’s digital agenda, security and defence, the EU’s relations with Turkey and North Korea’s nuclear programme were also discussed during the summit.
MIGRATION 28 citizens from Afghanistan, India, Iran and Iraq have been stopped by border police at Romania’s border with Hungary. The group was made up of nine women, eight men and eleven minors with ages between one and 17 years. All of them were asylum-seekers who said their intention was to cross the border into Hungary in order to make it to countries in Western Europe. The perpetrators are to be investigated for illegal entry and if found guilty legal measures are to be taken against them. Over 1000 migrants have been trying to cross Romania’s border into Hungary since the beginning of the year.
GROWTH According to a World Bank report Romania’s economy is to register unexpected growth in 2017 and 2018. The country’s GDP will supposedly rise by 5.5% this year thanks to the fiscal incentives and the improved European economy. Increased consumption will also lead to a current account deficit as well as inflation estimated at 2% at the end of this year. The report also says that Romania’s GDP will rise by 4.1% in 2018 and 3.6% in the following year. The World Bank cautions against accumulated fiscal pressure and excessive domestic demand, which could make Romania’s economy vulnerable to shocks also limiting the authorities’ future actions.
