December 23, 2013 UPDATE
A roundup of news from Romania
România Internațional, 23.12.2013, 18:03
The Moldovan PM, Iurie Leanca, on a visit to Bucharest on Monday, thanked the Romanian government for the support granted in 2013. He expressed hope that, with the help of Romania, the Republic of Moldova would integrate economically and politically in the European space. On Monday the Romanian government approved the financial aid worth 20 million euros for the development of the education system in the Republic of Moldova. The sum is part of a larger non reimbursable aid package worth 100 million euros.
The absorption rate of European funds for agriculture and rural development reached 67% in 2013, said the Romanian PM Victor Ponta. The absorption rate for cohesion funds in 2013 stood at 30% as compared to 7% in 2012. The two sectors brought to the state budget 5.5 billion euros accounting for non reimbursable EU funds, the PM added.
The IMF believes that Romania should take measures to compensate for the losses incurred by the state following the postponement of increasing the excise tax on fuel so as to maintain the budget deficit target at 2.2% of the GDP, writes a statement made public on Monday by the IMF resident representative in Romania and Bulgaria, Guillermo Tolosa. Also on Monday the Romanian finance ministry announced it did not envisage to introduce new taxes and duties or to increase the existing ones in order to compensate for the losses caused by postponing the increase in the excise duty on fuel. We recall that the Romanian President promulgated the budget for 2014 after the government decided to postpone by 3 months the introduction of an extra- excise duty on fuel of 7 eurocents per liter. Initially the excise duty had to be introduced as of January 1st 2014. The President contested the excise saying that the budget deficit target can be reached by other means.
The Romanian foreign minister, on Monday started a 4-day visit to Israel. He talked with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman about speeding up the procedure for granting long-term visas to Romanian citizens. The two also approached bilateral cooperation in such fields as investments, research, energy and education. The future joint meeting of the two governments to take place in Bucharest in 2014 was also high on the agenda of talks. The Romanian foreign minister will also meet with the Israeli President Shimon Peres and with PM Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the Israeli press Israel is home to more than 100 thousand Jews originating from Romania, among whom remarkable personalities of the economic, cultural and political fields in Israel.
On Monday Bucharest commemorated its heroes during a military and religious ceremony: the gendarmes killed on duty on December 23rd 1989. On Sunday Romania marked 24 years since the fall of the Communist regime, December 22nd 1989 being considered the day when Romania became free.
