FAIR Over March 13-16 the Belgian capital is hosting the international book fair Brussels Book Fair 2025, one of the most important events of this kind in Europe. Romania is attending this fair with over five hundred titles on view at the stand of the Romanian Cultural Institute also known as ICR. There are books and albums translated in several languages, predominantly in French, some of which have been funded through the ICR programmes with a view to promoting the Romanian authors at international level. Besides Romanian authors, the ICR stand is also promoting authors from the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet Romanian-speaking country. The ICR is expected to stage several events, during which authors are going to have a dialogue with foreign authors or with the Belgian readership. The Brussels Book Fair is one of the most important cultural events in the Belgian capital, which is also the EU capital, and brings together several thousand authors, illustrators, publishers, critics as well as readers annually.
EBRD The president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development EBRD, Odile Renaud-Basso, will be visiting Bulgaria and Romania next week, the aforementioned financial institution has announced in a communiqué. The visit of the EBRD president comes at a time when the institution is preparing fresh five-year strategies for both countries, which will be subjected for public consultations at the end of this year. The EBRD investment in Romania rose from 658 million Euros up to 707 million last year. The EBRD official will be seeing Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, Finance Minister, Tanczos Barna, Energy Minister, Sebastian Burduja, as well as representatives of the business environment, diplomats and representatives of civil society.
ELECTION Candidates for the presidential election in May have two more days to register with the Central Election Bureau, the deadline being March 15 at midnight. So far, only two candidates are officially enrolled in the race, their candidacies having been validated by the Constitutional Court: Crin Antonescu, supported by the PSD-PNL-UDMR ruling coalition, and the Bucharest Mayor General, Nicuşor Dan, who runs as an independent candidate. Deputy Victor Ponta also registered his candidacy as an independent candidate, for which he was excluded from the Social-Democratic Party. On the other hand, the Constitutional Court’s decision to definitively reject the candidacy of independent candidate Călin Georgescu, a pro-Russian extremist who unexpectedly won the first round of last year’s presidential election, has prompted the parties that supported him, AUR and POT, to prepare a new electoral strategy. Thus, the leaders of the two parties, George Simion and Ana-Maria Gavrilă, announced they would both submit their candidacies for the presidential election, and one of them will withdraw once their candidacies are validated. The leader of USR, Elena Lasconi, who advanced to the second round last year, Diana Şoşoacă (from SOS Romania), who expressed confidence her candidacy would be upheld this time, as well as and MEP Cristian Terheş from the Romanian National Conservative Party, also submitted their candidacies.
TRADE DEFICIT – Romania’s trade deficit increased by 38% in January, compared to the same period last year, the National Statistics Institute reports. In 2024, Romania exported goods worth €92.6 billion, while its imports stood at €133.4 billion. Romania’s deficit remains significant, especially in relations with China, Germany and Poland, while recording surpluses with the UK, the Republic of Moldova and the USA, although in smaller volumes. Trade in agricultural products and foodstuffs remains vulnerable, as Romania mainly exports raw materials and imports end products. To reduce the €5 billion trade deficit in this area, experts recommend a strategy focused on the export of value-added products and more efficient use of statistical data for better-founded economic decisions.
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