MOLDOVA The president of Romania Klaus Iohannis had talks on Tuesday with
\nhis Moldovan counterpart, Maia Sandu, during which he reiterated Romania’s
\nsupport for Moldova’s EU accession efforts. Romania, Iohannis emphasised, firmly
\nsupports the opening of EU accession negotiations with the Republic of Moldova.
\nWednesday through Friday president Iohannis takes part in the EU – Western Balkans
\nSummit and the European Council meeting in Brussels, in which context he will
\nplead for a decision with respect to the start of accession negotiations with
\nUkraine and Moldova. Also on Tuesday, the Romanian PM Marcel Ciolacu had a telephone
\nconversation with the Moldovan PM Dorin
\nRecean, in which he reiterated Bucharest’s steady support for the neighbouring
\ncountry’s EU accession. The two prime ministers also discussed bilateral
\ncooperation projects, especially in the field of cross-border energy
\ninterconnection and the financial assistance provided by Romania for Moldova’s
\ndevelopment.<\/p>\n
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\n
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SCHENGEN The Romanian interior
\nminister C\u0103t\u0103lin Predoiu highlighted, in a statement following the Salzburg
\nForum in Slovenia on Tuesday, the progress made in the talks concerning Romania’s
\nSchengen accession. He said he had talks regarding the technical options for a
\ndecision to be made in December. As regards the fears concerning the transfer
\nof illegal migrants in Austria, Predoiu explained that those concerns exclusively
\nrelate to the migrants originally registered in Romania. According to the
\ncurrent Dublin regulation, once captured in Austria and proved to be illegal
\nmigrants, these individuals are returned to the country from which they came, the
\nRomanian official added. In 2023, 120 people were in this situation, Predoiu
\nmentioned. <\/p>\n
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\n
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ECONOMY Romania’s budget deficit in 2024 will be
\nbelow 5% of GDP, lower than at the end of this year. According to the Romanian
\ngovernment made up of the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal
\nParty, next year substantial additional funding will be earmarked for public
\neducation, healthcare, transports and investments. Under the draft 2024 state
\nbudget, salaries in the public sector as well as pensions will be raised. The
\ngovernment promises that all these increases will be operated without
\nconcurrent tax raises. The leaders of the ruling coalition parties rely on a
\nplanned set of measures to increase budget revenue collection and curb tax
\nevasion, as well as on the digitization of the national tax agency. <\/p>\n
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AGREEMENT
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VISIT The PM of
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TENNIS The
Click here for a roundup of local and world 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":[32986,29547,31651,32811,30167,29212,29120,29094,32347,29130,28976,28939,29295],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-612029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-accession","tag-budget","tag-court","tag-deficit","tag-doping","tag-economy","tag-eu","tag-halep","tag-kazakhstan","tag-moldova","tag-schengen","tag-tennis","tag-visit"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThe Romanian foreign ministry took note of the publication of the Russian
\nFederation’s government decision to withdraw from the bilateral agreement of
\n2005 concerning the opening of a Romanian consulate general in Rostov-on-Don. According
\nto a news release issued on Tuesday, Romania has not been officially notified
\nyet on this decision. At present, apart from the embassy in Moscow, Romania
\nalso operates a consular office in Rostov-on-Don and one in Sankt Petersburg. This
\nsummer the Romanian foreign ministry requested Moscow to reduce the number of
\ndiplomatic personnel at the Russian embassy in Bucharest by 40. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n
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\nRomania, Marcel Ciolacu, Tuesday received the foreign minister and deputy PM of
\nthe Republic of Kazakhstan, Murat Nurtleu, in which context the head of the
\nRomanian government emphasised that the excellent dynamics of bilateral
\nrelations ensure great potential to the bilateral cooperation towards the
\ninterconnection between Europe and the Caspian Sea region. According to a news
\nrelease issued by the Romanian government, the Romanian PM hailed the upward
\ntrend of the political dialogue and economic cooperation between the two
\ncountries and mentioned that Kazakhstan is Romania’s largest economic partner
\nin Central Asia. As regards the cooperation in the energy sector, the two
\nparties agreed to encourage cooperation in order to enhance the security of
\nenergy supplies for the EU member states as well as for the Republic of Moldova
\nand Ukraine, reads the news release. The two officials also discussed the
\nregional security situation in the context of Russia’s military aggression in
\nUkraine.<\/p>\n
\n
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\nRomanian tennis player Simona Halep will be heard at the Court of Arbitration
\nfor Sport in Lausanne on February 7-9, in proceedings initiated by Halep
\nagainst the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA). In October, the twice
\nGrand Slam winner lodged an appeal with the CAS against her 4-year suspension
\nfor doping. The Romanian athlete was penalised for two separate violations of
\nthe Tennis Anti-Doping Programme, the first one concerning the identification
\nof a banned substance at the 2022 US Open, and the second one concerning
\nirregularities in her biological passport. (AMP)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"