Radio România Internațional

Tag: rectification

  • November 17, 2022

    November 17, 2022

    Rectification – The Romanian government has scheduled for today the second meeting of this week aimed at correcting the budget for this year. It is about a positive rectification that will also lead to a reduction of the deficit to 5.74% of the Gross Domestic Product, from a previous 5.84%. The Finance Minister, Adrian Câciu, explained that the rectification was made on the principle of allocating additional funds to ensure the functioning of the administrative-territorial units, the normal unfolding of the activity of some of the main authorizing officers or the financing of the expenses with scholarships granted to students. At the same time, they took into consideration the provision of the necessary funds for homes for the elderly or people with serious disabilities and their personal assistants. Funds were also granted for farmers affected by the drought.



    Talks – The Romanian Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, is today in Luxembourg, for talks with his counterpart Jean Asselborn about the expansion of sectoral cooperation in which the Grand Duchy can offer expertise and assistance, such as financial and IT services, cyber security, green energy, research and development, agriculture and tourism. According to a press release from the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the two ministers are also addressing topics such as countering the food crisis, the impact of the war in Ukraine on other states in the region, with an emphasis on the Republic of Moldova, and supporting energy security. At the same time, Minister Aurescu presents the stage of Romanias accession process to the Schengen area, thanking his counterpart for Luxembourgs constant support in achieving this goal.



    Football – Romanias national football team meets Slovenia today in a friendly match played in Cluj-Napoca (north-west). On Sunday, the Romanian footballers will play, also a friendly match, against the Republic of Moldova, in Chisinau. Romania did not qualify for the World Cup in Qatar and is preparing the preliminaries for Euro 2024. Its opponents in group I are Switzerland, Israel, Kosovo, Belarus and Andorra. The two first-ranking teams will obtain qualification.



    Ukraine — The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, insists that the missile that killed two people in Poland on Tuesday was Russian. The representatives of NATO, the United States and Poland stated that the incident was most likely caused by a Ukrainian missile that went astray during the defense against the massive Russian air attack. President Zelensky, on the other hand, claims that he has no reason not to believe the reports of his military commanders, which state the opposite, and has asked that the Ukrainian experts should participate in the international investigation into this issue. The head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, declared, after a meeting of the ambassadors from the allied states, that Russia is, anyway, the main responsible, because it continues the illegal war against Ukraine. Moscow denied any involvement in the explosion in Poland, and the Russian ambassador to the UN accused Kyiv and Warsaw of seeking to cause a direct conflict between Russia and NATO through their statements. The Kremlin said, however, that it saw no reason for escalation after the incident in Poland.



    Assessment — A mixed team of experts from the European Commission and some member states, including the Netherlands, will be in Romania this week to assess the state of preparation for Schengen accession. According to the Bucharest Government, the visit is voluntary, similar to the one that took place between October 9-11. On Wednesday, the European Commission requested that Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia be part of the Schengen Area of ​​free movement without delay. The EC points out that Romania has a solid and high-quality border management and is involved in international cooperation in border police matters.



    Refugees – The Border Police General Inspectorate informs that on Wednesday, 66,246 people entered Romania through border points throughout the country, of whom 7,976 were Ukrainian citizens, an increase of about 5% compared to the previous day. According to a communique sent to the media on Thursday, starting on February 10, 2022, two weeks before the Russian army invaded their country, 2,847,088 Ukrainian citizens have entered Romania. Most of them continued their journey to countries in Western Europe, but over 86,500 chose to stay in Romania, according to the Romanian authorities.



    Elections — The Republicans have secured the seats needed for a majority in the lower house of the United States Congress, one week after the midterm elections, while the Democrats retain control of the Senate. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Washington, the estimates show that, once the counting of all the votes is completed, the Republicans will have 221 seats in the House of Representatives, compared to the Democrats, who would get 214. A hostile Lower House of the Congress will make difficult the Democrat President Joe Biden’s last two years of mandate. He said he was ready to work with the new majority, if it is going to be for the good of the American people. (LS)

  • August 19, 2022 UPDATE

    August 19, 2022 UPDATE

    Budget – The government adopted the first budget rectification of 2022, a positive one, which takes into account an economic growth of 3.5%, the budget revenues for the first six months and the budget execution for this period. The Finance Minister, Adrian Caciu, claims that the budget deficit can be kept under control and that the target of 5.84% for the end of the year is achievable. The Fiscal Council, an independent body that analyzes the sustainability of fiscal and budgetary policies, warned that the rectification may lead to exceeding a deficit of 7% of the Gross Domestic Product, because the government allegedly overestimated the receipts and underestimated part of the expenses.



    Covid – 4,854 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been registered in Romania in 24 hours, 631 less than the previous day, the Health Ministry announced on Friday. According to the source, most new cases of COVID are in Bucharest and in the counties of Cluj and Timiş. 3,450 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in specialized health units. 279 patients are treated in ICUs. In the last 24 hours, 21 deaths have been reported among patients with SARS-CoV-2.



    Table tennis – The Romanian-Austrian pair Bernadette Szocs/Sofia Polcanova won the gold medals in the womens doubles, on Thursday evening, at the European Table Tennis Championships in Munich (Germany), after defeating the Romanian pair Elizabeta Samara/ Andrea Dragoman. Samara and Dragoman won the silver medals, while Adina Diaconu and Maria Xiao (Spain) won the bronze. Romanias medal record at the European Championships in Munich is completed by the silver medal won in the mixed doubles by Bernadette Szocs and Ovidiu Ionescu.



    Marathon – 250 runners from ten countries have registered for the most difficult ultra-marathon in Romania, 2X2 Race, which will take place on Saturday, at Bâlea Lac, in the Făgăraş Mountains, at an altitude of over 2,000 meters, AGERPRES reports. The race is one of the most difficult mountain ultra-marathons in the world. The 2X2 Race takes place entirely at over 2,000 m, which makes it unique in Europe and one of the few in the world. This year, runners from Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Israel and Russia have entered the competition. The competitors will run on some of the most technical routes in the Carpathians, reaching the second highest peak in Romania, Negoiu (2,535 m). Such competitions take place on rugged terrain, from dirt paths through forests and alpine plains, to ridges and cliffs.



    Fires – This years fires affected 150,000 hectares in Romania, i.e. ten times more than the average for the period 2006 – 2021, the former head of the Environmental Guard Octavian Berceanu said on Friday. He drew attention, in a Facebook post, to the fact that the ash resulting from the fires risks affecting the inhabitants of the cities, given the lack of protective curtains and green belts of the localities. There have been 715 fires in Romania this year, in the context of a previous multi-year average of 49. The biggest number of fires this year (266 in one week) occurred at the end of March, when more than 61,000 hectares were affected. Romania, with 0.63% of the countrys area affected by fires, ranks second in Europe, after Portugal (0.95%), and Spain and Croatia (0.56%).



    France – The action that 77 Romanian firefighters carried out for a week in France has ended, the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU) announced on Friday. According to the cited source, the Romanian rescuers participated in firefighting missions in the southwest of France, in special meteorological conditions, the missions consisting in identifying and extinguishing hidden outbreaks, as well as in protecting nearby homes from possible other existing outbreaks. The aid that Romania granted to the French authorities was based on the request for international assistance made by the French government through the European Civil Protection Mechanism, General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations says. Some of the Romanian firefighters are returning to the country with an aircraft of the Defense Ministry, and the other rescuers, together with the intervention equipment will come back to Romania by land. (LS)

  • August 12, 2022

    August 12, 2022

    Rectification — The budget rectification bill published on the website of the Romanian Finance Ministry provides for increased revenues by over 21 billion lei (almost 4.3 billion Euros), and also for an increased budget deficit, by 2.64 billion lei (almost. 538 million Euros). The Ministries of Labor, Health, Energy, Agriculture and Transport will receive most of the money. The Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Special Telecommunications Service will have their budgets significantly reduced. The additional amounts allocated to the Labor Ministry are intended to provide social assistance and compensation for energy bills to families with low incomes. The positive budget rectification made by the Finance Ministry covers interest rate payments, securing the reserve fund available to the Government and state aid for some companies. As to the Energy Ministry, the extra money is intended for personnel expenses and the support scheme for compensating electricity and natural gas prices.



    Fires — Romania is sending firefighters and specific equipment to France to help put out the forest fires affecting the southwestern region of Gironde. About 77 firefighters and 17 pieces of intervention equipment will be sent for a mission at the request of the French Government, through the European Civil Protection Mechanism. Two strategic transport aircraft have already left from Bucharest and Timişoara (west) with the first pieces of equipment, and today a third plane will transport the firefighters. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, thanked Romania and the other countries that are helping France to put out the fires, describing the gesture as a demonstration of European solidarity.



    Festival — Famous bands such as Arctic Monkeys, Nothing but Thieves, Inhaler, Roosevelt, Self Esteem, Hayes & Y will perform at the 11th edition of the Summer Well Festival, which starts today, at the Ştirbey estate in Buftea, near Bucharest. The British rockers from Arctic Monkeys eagerly waited at the Summer Well festival, are coming to Romania as part of a European tour that also includes Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. Today, Future Islands, Channel Tres, Sad Night Dynamite, Lea Porcelain, Dylan Fraser will take the main stage. At the same time, music lovers will enjoy the music of Şuie Paparude, Flight Facilities and Cătălina Cara. In 2021, Summer Well hosted a special edition called Limited Edition.



    Football — Three Romanian football teams qualified, on Thursday, at home, for the play-offs of the Europa Conference League and have chances to reach the groups stage. FCSB defeated the Slovak team FC DAC 1904 Dunajska Streda 1-0 in the second leg of the third preliminary round, after winning in the first match 1-0. In the next stage, FCSB will meet Viking Stavanger (Norway). CFR Cluj defeated the Belarusian team Shahtior Soligorsk 1-0, after their first match ended in a draw, 0-0. The Romanian champions will play in the play-offs against NK Maribor from Slovenia. And Universitatea Craiova defeated the Ukrainian team Zaria Lugansk 3-0, after winning 1-0 in the first match. In the next stage, U Craiova will face Hapoel Beer-Sheva FC from Israel. The fourth Romanian team from the Europa Conference League, Sepsi OSK Sfântu Gheorghe, was eliminated by the Swedish team Djurgaardens IF.



    Robor — The 3-month ROBOR index, based on which the cost of loans with variable interest is calculated, has returned to a value below the threshold of 8% per year. The National Bank of Romania announced that the index dropped to 7.98% on Friday, from 8.02% per year as reported in the previous day. At the beginning of 2022, the 3-month ROBOR index was 3.02% per year.



    Magistrates — The plenum of Romania’s Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) is to give an advisory opinion, today, on the bills amending the justice laws. The Justice Ministry reminds that the bills were drawn up, in a first version, in September 2020, publicly debated between September 2020 and April 2021 and subsequently modified, successively, following public debates. In January 2022, the Justice Ministry resumed the process of updating and completing the bills. In the spring of this year, the bills were discussed at technical and political levels with representatives of the European Commission, within the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. The adoption of the bills is a double objective within the Mechanism and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). (LS)

  • Budget adjustment at the end of the year

    Budget adjustment at the end of the year

    The year’s 2nd budget rectification approved on Thursday by the Liberal government in Bucharest has pushed the budget deficit up to 4.4% of the GDP as against 4.3% as was initially stipulated when the document was submitted for public debate. The finance minister Florin Cîţu has explained that, in the last two days, they have identified certain expenses that had not been stipulated in the budget by the former Social Democratic cabinet.



    He has announced that an additional amount of around 400 million Euros has been allotted for the payment of social security rights by the end of the year. The finance minister has added that more money was also allocated for the payment of increased salaries in the public healthcare institutions and for medicines. The regional development ministry has also received more money for the National Rural Development Program. Additional funds will equally be channeled towards the Start-Up Nation program. The budgets of the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Protection and Guard Service will also go up, the adjustment of their budget having been approved during Wednesday’s meeting of the country’s Supreme Defense Council. According to the budget adjustment bill, money will be cut from the ministries of education, interior and transport.



    According to minister Cîţu, with this budget rectification they are putting an end to a practice according to which the money which had to be used for social expenses was channeled towards the Social Democratic local authorities, and also according to which, at the end of the year, the deficit was artificially reduced by postponing certain payments for the next year. The finance minister, a fierce adversary of the former Social Democratic government headed by Viorica Dancila, says the rectification observes the law and through this rectification they will show what has been stolen, from where and what has been overestimated.



    In reply, Cristian Socol, one of the members of the former Social Democratic government involved in the drafting of the governing program, says that the budget deficit could be maintained at around 3% of the GDP. He claims that the new government is wasting the public money to later put the blame on the disastrous situation left behind by the Social Democrats. In his opinion, some of the expenses included in the budget rectification bill could have been phased out, such as the more than 6 billion lei for the National Rural Development Program, the VAT refund, the damages to be paid by the National Authority for Property Restitution or what he calls discretionary expenses.



    Cristian Socol also believes that revenues could have been increased if the National Agency for Fiscal Administration had boosted tax collection efforts by the end of the year. Beyond political disputes, the national bank’s chief economist Valentin Lazea warns of the risks caused by the pension increase, according to the legislation in force. He claims that the negative impact, which can already be felt, will result in a rise in the budget deficit, and considers that postponing the enforcement of the new pension law, a law passed by the former Social Democratic majority, would be a good option. (translation by L. Simion)

  • Le budget roumain revu

    Le budget roumain revu

    La première correction du budget 2014 de la Roumanie est positive. Autrement dit, personne ne se voit couper des fonds, ni ne perd rien. Même le ministère de lEnvironnement peut souffler – il aurait dû, au départ, se délester de quelque 5 millions et demi deuros; au contraire, il se verra attribuer une dizaine de millions deuros pour des travaux de prévention des crues. Cette somme pourrait même augmenter, en fonction des évaluations qui seront réalisées dans les départements gravement touchés par les intempéries de cet été.



    La Santé aussi se voit allouer davantage dargent. Un mouvement prévisible, tandis quaugmente aussi le nombre des voix qui mettent en cause le sous-financement chronique du système, freinant ainsi la réforme dans ce secteur. Concrètement, le ministère de la Santé et la Caisse dassurance maladie toucheront ensemble plus de 150 millions deuros pour renflouer le système des urgences ainsi que les programmes nationaux dassistance aux patients atteints de maladies graves, telles le cancer ou le diabète.



    Des fonds supplémentaires iront aussi à lEducation, à la Défense, à lEconomie, aux Transports, de même quà lAutorité électorale permanente, cette dernière devant organiser le scrutin présidentiel de novembre prochain. Et, justement parce que ces élections approchent à grands pas, lopposition de centre-droit affirme quen proposant ce collectif budgétaire, lactuelle coalition au pouvoir, dominée par les sociaux-démocrates, ne se conduit pas daprès une stratégie économique solide, mais se livre seulement à un jeu électoral.



    Le gouvernement précise, en revanche, quil avait tablé sur une croissance économique de 2,8 et non de 2,2% du PIB, le chiffre initialement pris en compte lors de lélaboration du budget dEtat pour 2014. De même, le cabinet fonde lactuel collectif budgétaire sur des recettes plus importantes et une hausse du PIB nominal (en valeur) jusquà près de 150 milliards deuros.



    La prochaine révision du budget de lEtat doit intervenir à la fin septembre. Jusqualors, les autorités centrales et locales roumaines envisagent de canaliser leurs efforts sur la baisse du chômage. Celui-ci se chiffrait à 7,1%, en juin dernier, en légère baisse par rapport au mois précédent et à la même période de lannée dernière. Selon lInstitut national de la statistique, la Roumanie doit actuellement composer avec un nombre estimé de 700 mille chômeurs, des personnes âgées de plus de 15 ans, en quête dun emploi et qui pourraient loccuper dans un délai de deux semaines. A lintérieur de cette catégorie de demandeurs demploi, 8% sont des diplômés des universités. Pour ce qui est de la répartition par sexes, le taux du chômage des hommes et plus important que chez les femmes – 7,7% par rapport à 6,4%. Enfin, les chômeurs âgés de plus de 25 ans représentent près de trois quarts du total des demandeurs demploi. (trad.: Andrei Popov)