Radio România Internațional

Tag: single currency

  • January 2, 2019 UPDATE

    January 2, 2019 UPDATE

    EU The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, congratulated Romania on taking over the EU Council presidency on January 1, for the first time since its accession, and wished it good luck. I am confident that you will deliver and I am looking forward to working with you, Donald Tusk posted on his official Twitter account. Between January 1 and June 30, Romania will have to handle an EU agenda filled with political developments and dossiers with a decisive impact on the future of the bloc, including Brexit, the negotiation of the forthcoming EU budget, the European Parliament elections due in May. The European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu says Romania should use all the opportunities entailed by the EU Council presidency, including in terms of the cohesion policy for 2021-2027. In a Facebook post, Creţu adds that both herself and the European Commission as a whole are ready to support the Romanian authorities for a successful presidency.




    EURO Twenty years since the introduction of the single currency, high-ranking EU officials, including the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, emphasised the importance of the European currency. The Euro has become a symbol of unity, sovereignty and stability, said the European Commission chief, who is one of the signatories of the treaty that created the single currency. I know that was the most important signature I ever made, Juncker added in a news release. 20 years on, we have a generation that only knows the Euro as a national currency, the head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi said in his turn. The Euro became the official currency of 11 EU member states on January 1, 1999, with notes and coins going into circulation in 2002. At present the Euro is used by some 340 million people in 19 of the 28 member countries, and is the second most important currency in the world after the US dollar.




    JAPAN Emperor Akihito, who is to step down in April, sent his hopes for peace for his nation and the entire world, in his last New Years address, delivered before a record number of people who came to see the event, according to Kyodo and dpa. On April 30, at the age of 85, Akihito will be the first Japanese sovereign to relinquish power in the last 200 years. In 2016 he announced his intention to withdraw from power, putting forth concerns that his old age would prevent him from accomplishing his duties. Akihito became the 125th Emperor of Japan on January 7, 1989, at 55 years of age, after the death of his father, Hirohito, in whose name Japan fought in World War 2. Akihitos oldest son, Prince Naruhito, will be crowned on May 1.




    JUSTICE The Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said in an interview aired by a private television channel on Tuesday that he would like to close the subject of a government decree regarding amnesty and pardons. He emphasised that the most his ministry can do is to approve a bill initiated in Parliament on this topic. Toader also said that he has never done and will never do something likely to create a situation similar to the one triggered by the 2017 government decree no. 13, which brought hundreds of thousands of Romanians into the streets and prompted criticism from the EU and the USA.



    ELECTIONS The elections for the European Parliament will be held between May 23rd and 26th this year. MEPs are elected every 5 years, and as of this year the Parliament will have 705 members, as compared to 751 at present. This is because of Britains withdrawal from the EU. Of the 73 seats currently held by UK, 46 will be eliminated and the other 27 will be distributed to EU member states that are under-represented in the Unions legislative body. Romania gets 33 seats, 1 more than at present.




    TENNIS The Romanian player Monica Niculescu (99 WTA), Wednesday qualified into the quarter-finals of the WTA tournament in Shenzhen (China), after defeating the Czech Kristyna Pliskova 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4. In the quarter-finals Niculescu will play against the Chinese Yafan Wang (70 WTA). Tomorrow in the same tournament another Romanian, Sorana Cîrstea (84 WTA) takes on the American Alison Riske (62 WTA).



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Romania and the adoption of the European currency

    Romania and the adoption of the European currency

    After having become a EU member in 2007 Romania now has to also join the Euro zone. Throughout the years, three dates have been set for the adoption of the single currency but there has never been a project that the political class and the civil society committed themselves to in this respect. The previously set dates, namely the years 2012, 2019 and, more recently, 2022, turned out to be unrealistic, since the Romanian economy still needs serious reforms in order to successfully cope with the adoption of the single currency.



    The problem has again come to the attention of the Bucharest Government that set up a national committee tasked with drafting a national plan for the country’s adoption of the European currency. In order to ensure large-scale representation, the committee will be made up of officials of public government institutions, in charge with making the necessary preparations for accession and the conducting of the structural reforms. Also part of the committee will be representatives of the Presidential Administration, the employers’ and trade union confederations, of the Central Bank, the Financial Surveillance Authority as well as personalities of the scientific and cultural world and representatives of NGOs. Two presidents will be heading the committee, namely, the current Prime Minister and the president of the Romanian Academy. The committee will also have two vice-presidents – the Governor of the Central Bank and the deputy Prime Minister, in charge of the economic sector.



    With details on that, here is Government spokesman Nelu Barbu: ”In the coordination of the committee, specialized working groups will be formed, that will be operational on several levels, such as public finances and monetary and financial issues, labor market, education and healthcare reform and modernization, for the clarification of the legal aspects, for public information and consumer protection. The national committee will also present the timetable for the adoption of the euro and the national plan for the adoption of the single currency that must be assumed politically. The deadline is November 15, 2018.”



    Euro zone countries, plus achieving exchange rate stability. Furthermore, the laws that regulate the organization and functioning of Romania’s Central Bank need to be harmonized with the European Central Bank legislation. Another requirement has to do with the continuation of the process of taking over and transposing community regulations to national legislation. So far, the single currency has been adopted by 19 of the 28 EU states, with Lithuania being the last country to have joined the Euro zone group in 2015. Pundits have warned that the debt crisis lasting longer than expected in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, which are less competitive countries, has emphasized the drawbacks of being part of the Euro zone for countries that are not prepared for it and also the need for thorough reforms. The largest eastern EU members, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, have slowed down for the time being their preparations for joining the Euro zone.