February 17, 2025
A roundup of news from Romania and the world
Newsroom, 17.02.2025, 13:55
Energy – The Romanian government is to make a decision this week regarding the continuation of the current compensation-capping scheme for electricity and natural gas prices for domestic consumers. The energy minister, Sebastian Burduja, said however that he supported a better targeting of this support to those vulnerable consumers for whom the payment of utilities represents too big a burden. A government decision is to be implemented through an emergency ordinance.
Inflation – The National Bank of Romania (BNR) Governor, Mugur Isărescu, presents, today, the Quarterly Report on Inflation. According to a National Bank statement sent to AGERPRES on Friday, the annual inflation rate will record a pronounced fluctuation in the first semester of 2025, and in the second semester it will decrease on a higher trajectory than the one in the previous projection. Based on the evaluations and available data, as well as in the context of high uncertainties, the BNR Board of Directors decided to maintain the monetary policy interest rate at the level of 6.50% per year. Also, the BNR decided to maintain the current levels of the mandatory minimum reserve ratio for liabilities in lei and in foreign currency of credit institutions.
Paris – The leaders of the main European powers are having an emergency meeting, today, in Paris, to discuss European security and the war in Ukraine. Participating are the prime ministers of Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, the president of the European Council, the president of the European Commission and the NATO secretary general, the French presidency announced. Today’s talks could later be expanded into other formats, with the aim of bringing together all partners interested in peace and security in Europe. The meeting in Paris takes place at a particularly delicate moment in the relationship between the European Union and the United States, after the initiatives taken in recent days by American President Donald Trump and his team to negotiate peace in Europe directly with Vladimir Putin, the European countries and Ukraine being excluded from decision-making, Radio Romania’s correspondent reports. On the other hand, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, stated that Ukraine and Europe would be involved in ‘real negotiations’ for peace. According to Reuters, Rubio’s statement suggests that the meeting between the U.S. and Russian representatives, which will take place in the next few days in Saudi Arabia, is just a move for Washington to feel the pulse and see if Moscow is really willing to negotiate. The Russian-American talks will begin on Tuesday in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, the BBC reports.
Germany – Germany is getting ready for Sunday’s parliamentary elections, in a more polarized climate than ever over immigration, further inflamed by the Trump administration’s open support for the far right, AFP reports. According to surveys, the nationalist anti-immigration movement AfD will take second place in the legislative elections, with at least 20% of the votes, behind the conservatives, who are rated at 30-32%. In a speech delivered at the Munich Security Conference, the U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance urged the traditional parties in Germany, and the classical right in particular, to give up the ‘protective wall’ or ‘sanitary cordon’ that they established after the Second World War to refuse to govern with the extreme right. I refuse such interference in the German parliamentary elections and in the formation of the government that will follow in Germany. I will not let an American vice-president tell me who I should talk to here in Germany’, said the leader of the Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, a favorite in the polls to become the next chancellor. In turn, the social-democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz, described the intervention of the American vice-president as unacceptable. Instead, AfD leader Alice Weidel welcomed J.D. Vance’s statements and emphasized the similarities between her program and that of the Trump administration.
Motion – The motion of censure aimed at Romania’s coalition government led by the social democrat Marcel Ciolacu will no longer be submitted to Parliament today, the president of the opposition Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion announced. In a Facebook post, he said that he expected all the opposition MPs, including those from the Save Romania Union (USR) and the Young People’s Party (POT), to join the initiative. The AUR leader added that he expected a reaction from them by Friday. The motion of censure, signed by 125 elected representatives from S.O.S. Romania and AUR, had to be submitted in Parliament today. At the moment of gathering the signatures, the USR president, Elena Lasconi, advised her colleagues not to support the initiative, on the grounds that Romania needs calm and stability. (LS)
