September 3, 2024 UPDATE
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 03.09.2024, 19:49
Bills. The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest on Tuesday passed a bill on raising the ceiling for the pension tax relief to the equivalent of 600 euros, so pensioners who received higher sums after recalculation are not to lose any money by exceeding the previous threshold of 400 euros. Another bill passed by deputies as part of an emergency procedure related to the donation by Romania of a Patriot ground-to-air missile system to neighbouring Ukraine. The only party to oppose this latter bill was the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians, in opposition.
Energy. The energy ministers of Romania, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Hungary on Tuesday attended the 8th meeting to discuss the Green Corridor, an offshore cable to transport electricity with a length of 1,200 km and connecting these states. The Romanian energy minister Sebastian Burduja said the project is a matter of national security. He added that it was about the need to diversify, as the European market is not working sufficiently well and cheaper energy sources from Western Europe don’t always reach the East. Azerbaijan’s energy minister Parviz Shahbazov thanked the European Union for the help granted as early as 2022, when the foundations for this project were laid. He said his country wished to connect this corridor with another, which involves states from Central Asia, such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The meeting in Bucharest tackled the establishment of the company that will manage the project and launch of the feasibility study prior to the project’s implementation.
Schengen. Romania’s full entry into Schengen is of utmost interest for Hungary, as well, because it would do away with the long border queues and the trade between the two countries would be simpler, said the Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó. He explained that if Romania joins Schengen, Hungary can open ten new border crossings. The Hungarian official was in Bucharest to attend the 8th meeting of the states involved in the Green Corridor project.
Grants. The Romanian foreign ministry announced the results of the selection of non-EU students to receive grants from the Romanian government this academic year. A record-high number of applications have been received (81,914, from 160 countries on 5 continents), which according to a news release reflects the growing interest of students in the educational opportunities provided by Romanian universities. The applications were submitted online, at www.studyinromania.gov.ro, between January 16 and March 16, this year. Selection criteria included academic excellence, geographic diversity and gender equality, as well as Romania’s foreign policy interests in relation to the applicants’ home countries. The 500 beneficiaries will go to prestigious university centres around the country (such as Braşov, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Constanţa, Craiova, Iaşi, Sibiu, Timişoara and others) and will study a variety of fields, such as international relations, engineering, law, computer sciences, performing arts, economy, business and education sciences.
Cyber attack. Personal data stolen in a cyber-attack targeting the Timişoara City Hall, the local police and the tax agency have been put up for sale by hackers on a Telegram channel. The discovery was made by the founder of a consulting platform for corporate victims of cyber-attacks. The Mayor of Timişoara, Dominic Fritz, has neither confirmed nor denied the personal data theft, and said he was waiting for the relevant authorities to investigate the matter. After the attack that took place 10 days ago, the City Hall announced that the institution took counter-measures and managed to prevent the entire system from being compromised. The institution also said at that point that there were no indications that personal data had been extracted. Online tax payments were subsequently discontinued.
Tax. The Romanian government would collect nearly 2 billion euros if at least 15% of the taxpayers with debts to the authorities accessed a facility that extinguishes penalties, under a draft emergency order posted by the finance ministry. The bill exempts debtors from the payment of interest and penalties provided that they pay their back taxes by November 25. For individuals with debts up to 1,000 euros, half of the overdue amount may be written off, if the remaining 50% is paid. According to the ministry, the total debts to the state budget at the end of June reached around 10% of the country’s GDP.
