BUDGET President
\nKlaus Iohannis Friday promulgated the state budget law and the social security budget
\nlaw for the year 2024. Next year, Romania’s budget will be focused on
\ninvestments of about 7% of the GDP, as well as on an economic growth rate of
\n3.4%, while the budget deficit is estimated at 5% of the GDP. The government
\npassed the bills on December 15, and the budgets were endorsed five days later
\nby the joined chambers of the Romanian Parliament.<\/p>\n
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PARLIAMENT Romania’s Senate Friday dismissed 3 bills
\ntabled by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania regarding the autonomy of the Szeklers Land, a
\nregion in the centre of the country. The
\ninitiatives were rejected by the Chamber of Deputies on Thursday. At the
\nplenary talks, the MPs from all the other parties stressed that the bills came against
\nseveral articles in the Constitution and harmed the rule of law, while the
\ninitiators argued the opposite, saying that territorial autonomy worked in a
\nnumber European states. The bills provided for the Covasna and Harghita
\ncounties and a part of Mure\u015f county becoming autonomous, as part of a region
\nwith legal personality. In that presumed autonomous entity, the Hungarian
\nlanguage would have had the same status as the official language of the
\nRomanian state. The land would also have its own president, elected for a
\nfour-year term by universal ballot. The so-called Szeklers Land, the only area
\nin Romania where the Hungarian population is the majority, benefited from
\nautonomy between 1952 and 1968. According to historians, this was an experiment
\nin Soviet-occupied Romania imposed on Bucharest by the Kremlin dictator Joseph
\nStalin, at the insistence of the communist leaders in Budapest. The ethnic
\nHungarian population in Romania has been represented, without interruption, in
\nthe Parliament of post-communist Romania since 1990 until today, by the
\nDemocratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians. Since 1996, the UDMR has been part of
\nnumerous coalition governments in Bucharest, whether right-wing or left-wing. <\/p>\n
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EDUCATION The Romanian government Friday passed the 2024 – 2027
\nNational Strategy on Adult Education, aimed at enhancing citizen participation
\nin life-long learning programmes and at improving the quality of adult
\neducation and training. The targeted participation rate by the end of 2027 is
\n12%, as against 5.9% at present. The EU average life-long learning
\nparticipation rate is 11.9%. The low level of participation in lifelong
\nlearning schemes has led to persisting lack of skills, which prevents economic
\ndevelopment and hinders Romania’s adjustment to a fast-changing labour market
\nin the digital era, the government said in a news release. <\/p>\n
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TIMI\u015eOARA The activities carried out part of the ‘Timi\u015foara – European Capital
\nof Culture 2023’ programme, including the Constantin Br\u00e2ncu\u015fi exhibition,
\nreceived the most votes (29%) to receive the title of ‘event of the year 2023
\nin Romania’, in a survey carried out by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation
\nand Strategy (IRES). According to the poll, the second event that marked
\nRomania in 2023 was the qualification of the national football team to the
\nfinal tournament of the European Championship – UEFA EURO 2024, which will take
\nplace next summer in Germany (24% of responses). Regarding culture and free
\ntime, 58% of the survey respondents said that they read at least one book in
\n2023, and 41% that they also bought books, 36% went to a show, and 20% went to
\na stadium or attended a sports competition. More than three quarters of the
\nsurvey participants (76%) stated that they went to church this year.<\/p>\n
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POLICE Close to 24,000 interior ministry staff will be on
\nduty during the 4-day New Year’s holiday, while road traffic will be monitored
\nby 360 radar speed guns and DUI check teams. Meanwhile, the authorities announced
\nhaving seized over 100 tonnes of fireworks kits and opening more than 500 criminal
\ninvestigations in this respect, and have once again called on parents not to
\nbuy firecrackers for their children as such materials may be extremely
\ndangerous. <\/p>\n
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HANDBALL The men’s national handball team of Romania Friday won the
\nCarpa\u0163i Trophy international handball tournament, organised in Pitesti,
\nsouthern Romania, after defeating Georgia 31-25 in the final. For Romania, trained by the famous Spanish
\ncoach Xavi Pascual, this was the last test before the European Championship -
\nEHF EURO 2024 to be held in Germany, between January 10 and 28, 2024. The
\nRomanians will play in Group B, alongside Spain, Austria and Croatia. The first
\ntwo ranked teams will qualify for the so-called main groups. A 4-times world
\nchampion in the 1960s-70s, Romania had not qualified for a European
\nChampionship since 1996. (AMP)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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