\n
\n<\/p>\n
Schengen.<\/strong> The European Union’s Justice and Home
<\/p>\n
Reaction.<\/strong> Bulgaria’s president Rumen Radev described as cynical the
<\/p>\n
Finance.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n
Maize.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n
Oil.
A roundup of local and international news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-106334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAffairs Council is expected in a few days to decide on the entry into Schengen
\nof Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. A unanimous vote is required, but Austria’s
\nhome affairs minister Gerhard Gartner told the Austrian
\nnewspaper Kurier that his country is opposed to Romania’s and Bulgaria’s
\nadmission on account of their unresolved problems with the protection of the
\nEU’s external borders, and the rejection of asylum applicants and their
\ndistribution. Austria has in fact requested that the admission of Romania and
\nBulgaria should not be put to vote during the upcoming meeting on 8th
\nDecember. Austria is now the only EU member state to still oppose the admission
\nof Romania and Bulgaria into Schengen. The Dutch government announced on Friday
\nthat the Dutch Parliament would approve the admission of Romania and Croatia
\nbut has objections with respect to Bulgaria because of issues relating to
\ncorruption and the rule of law. Sweden has also spoken in favour of Romania’s
\nentry. The European Commission called on the Council to take the necessary
\ndecisions without delay to allow for the full entry of Romania, Bulgaria and
\nCroatia to the Schengen area. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nrefusal of some EU partners to accept his country into Schengen, while the
\ninterior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev rejected claims by
\nAustria and The Netherlands that Bulgaria is not taking enough measures to halt
\nthe wave of illegal migrants. Every day, the Bulgarian border police officers are
\nprotecting with their bodies the security of all European citizens, including
\nthe Dutch, on the EU’s most difficult border, despite increasing migratory
\npressure, which has grown four times since last year, said the Bulgarian
\ninterior minister in a statement, and recalled that three Bulgarian border
\npolice officers were recently killed in an incident on the Turkish border. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nThe Romanian finance ministry published an emergency order containing the main
\nfiscal and budgetary measures to come into effect from 1st January
\n2023. The bill is subject to public consultation until 8th December.
\nUnder the bill, public sector salaries are
\nto grow by 10% and pensions by 12.5%. Pensioners earning under 600 euros a
\nmonth will also benefit from additional assistance in the form of two separate
\npayments, while those earning under 400 euros a month will receive aid to pay
\ntheir energy bills. Special pensions for the local elected officials are
\nsuspended until 2024. The bill also provides for special benefits for people
\nwith disabilities and raising the minimum wage to 3,000 lei. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nRomania’s maize yield this year is the lowest since
\n2007, having dropped by 40-50% compared with previous years because of the
\ndrought, said agriculture minister Petre Daea. He gave
\nassurances, however, that the production will be enough to meet demands from
\nthe internal markets, and that some will also be exported. The minister also
\nsaid Romania had a yield of over 2 million tonnes of sunflower seeds, which is
\ntwice as much as the country’s needs. Despite the difficult weather conditions this
\nyear, over 9 million tonnes of wheat were harvested and stored. Last year,
\nRomania was the European Union’s biggest producer of maize and its fourth largest
\nwheat producer. Since 2015, Romania has been the bloc’s biggest producer of
\nsunflower seeds. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The European Union will impose from Monday a 60-dollar-per-barrel price cap on
\nRussian oil. The cap was established by the European Union, the G7 countries
\nand Australia in order to reduce the revenues obtained by Russia from its oil
\nsales in the context of the war this country generated in Ukraine. Ukraine’s
\npresident Volodymyr Zelensky described the decision as not serious, given that
\nthe current price is 65 dollars per barrel. He called for a lower cap of 30
\ndollars per barrel. Many experts believe, however, that this would destabilise
\nthe global oil market and lead to an uncontrolled rise in prices. According to news agencies,
\nRussia has already warned it will no longer deliver oil to the countries that
\nimpose price caps. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"