October 6, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 06.10.2023, 20:15

SUMMIT Several EU leaders
have rejected 2030 as the year of the EU enlargement at the summit held in
Granada on Friday. The next stage of the enlargement is supposed to include the
states of the Western Balkans, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova but the
Spanish Foreign Minister has underlined that every country must first do their
homework and only then join the European Union according to their merits.
Another major issue on the agenda was migration and in this respect Poland and
Hungary have made it clear they oppose any common agreement. Cyber-security,
military security and climate change have also been high on the agenda.
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has also attended the event.

VISIT Romanian
president Klaus Iohannis is paying a formal visit to Portugal until Monday upon
the invitation of his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
According to the Presidential Administration, the visit will kick off with the
participation of the Romanian president, as a special guest, in the anniversary
meeting of the Arraiolos Group, hosted by the Portuguese president in Porto on
Friday. The meeting marks 20 years since the debut of this informal platform of
consultations at the presidential level among 16 EU countries. On Saturday,
Iohannis will be received by his Portuguese counterpart in Lisbon. According to
the presidential administration, the
field of defence is one of the key elements of the bilateral cooperation
with a view to consolidating the allied defence on NATO’s Eastern Flank, an
outcome of this cooperation being Portugal’s participation with a ground force
contingent to the multinational NATO brigade in Romania. On the sidelines of
the aforementioned visit, a series of bilateral documents will be signed in the
fields of energy, investment and trade. In another development, Klaus Iohannis
will be paying a formal visit to Hungary on Wednesday for talks with his
Hungarian counterpart Katalin Novak.

MECHANISM The
mechanism that will allow the import of limited quantities of grain from Ukraine
and the Republic of Moldova only on the basis of a license was discussed by the
Bucharest Government in Thursday’s meeting. The measure aims to protect
Romanian farmers after the European Commission lifted the restrictions imposed
on Ukrainian grain imports, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said. He stated that
this mechanism, agreed with all parties involved, will allow imports only on
the basis of an authorization for limited quantities of grain and will apply
only to Romanian farmers and processors who demonstrate that they need
additional quantities to replenish stocks. This is how we ensure that
products that comply with quality standards will arrive on the Romanian
market, Ciolacu pointed out. He also said that Romania continues to support
Ukraine with all its strength, but that it is mandatory for the
Bucharest administration to protect the work of Romanian farmers. Recently, the
Romanian Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu, has said that the agricultural
products that are subject to import and will fall under the scope of this
mechanism are wheat, corn, sunflower seeds and rapeseed.

RATE The
National Bank of Romania (BNR) has decided to maintain the monetary policy
interest rate at 7% per year, a value that has remained unchanged since January.
The board of directors of the BNR also kept unchanged the interest at which
commercial banks can borrow from the BNR and the interest they receive when
they keep money in deposits established at the central bank. According to the
new assessments of the BNR, the annual inflation rate will continue to decrease
until the end of the current year. Starting next year, however, inflation will
be influenced by the existence of major risks, arising from the new
fiscal-budgetary measures adopted by the government and the degree of
absorption of European funds, as well as the war in neighboring Ukraine and
economic developments below expectations from Europe.

(bill)