Radio România Internațional

Tag: spending

  • Budget for 2025, promulgated

    Budget for 2025, promulgated

     

    The outgoing president Klaus Iohannis signed the decrees promulgating the 2025 state budget and social security budget laws. The two bills had been quickly endorsed last week in the joint plenary meeting of the Romanian parliament. MPs in the opposition—AUR, Save Romania Union, SOS Romania and the Young People’s Party—submitted thousands of amendments, but these were dismissed one by one by the vote of the ruling coalition, comprising the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania.

     

    The opposition claimed that many amendments were rushed away without careful consideration. The budgets of ministries, on the other hand, were adopted as received from the reporting committees, and one of the few amendments to pass concerned an increase in the funding of the health ministry. Another amendment scrapped the approx. EUR 140,000 originally earmarked to the Constitutional Court of Romania for covering medical prescription claims for employees and retired judges.

     

    The draft budget for 2025 was passed by the government on February 1 and is based on a 2.5% economic growth rate and a budget deficit of 7% of GDP. The 2025 budget will enable the country’s development process to continue, PM Marcel Ciolacu said. He emphasised that higher amounts have been earmarked for the health ministry, for motorways and railways, as well as for education, and he dismissed the idea of ​​an austerity budget.

     

    In turn, the finance minister Tanczos Barna described the state budget for 2025 as “modest” and based on a prudent increase in revenues, “without exaggeration.” He claimed that there is “enough money for salaries, pensions and social benefits”.

     

    The budget was criticised not only by the opposition, but also by employers and trade unions, while Fiscal Council experts said that revenues were overestimated.

     

    The 2025 budget was finalised after late last week an IMF delegation completed its talks in Bucharest with the main institutions responsible for Romania’s monetary and fiscal policies. It was not an assessment mission, but only a fact-finding one, and PM Marcel Ciolacu assured the IMF of the government’s determination to comply with the budget deficit target of 7% of the GDP and to implement the reforms undertaken in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

     

    The IMF made public its latest forecasts regarding the Romanian economy last autumn, when it estimated a 7% deficit for the end of 2025, the same as predicted by the Government. The IMF estimates are, however, more optimistic both in terms of the economic growth rate (3.3%, compared to only 2.5% forecast by Bucharest) and inflation (3.6%, below the 4.4% target set by the government). (AMP)

  • The Annual Report of the Fiscal Council

    The Annual Report of the Fiscal Council

    According to the Fiscal Council, Romania may this year register a lower economic growth than the government’s previous forecast of 3.4 %. In its annual report, the Council also warns that the budget deficit will exceed 7% of the GDP in the absence of a series of measures of fiscal-budgetary consolidation. The Fiscal Council recalls that the deficit, caused by higher expenses than returns, has exceeded in the first six months of this year 3.6% of the GDP, being 1.3% higher than in the same period last year. Calculations have revealed the risk that the budget deficit may even account for 8% of the GDP, as the new pension law and the recent pay rises in the public sector will generate additional costs in the second half of the year.

    Against this background, the Council representatives have pointed out that in the absence of concrete and credible policies aimed at supporting the fiscal-budgetary consolidation on medium term as well as an improved tax collection system, the deficit stands chances to exceed the figures initially forecast by the national and European authorities for the period 2025-2027.

    The Fiscal Council is made up of representatives of the Central Bank, the Romanian Association of Banks, the Romanian Academy, the Academy of Economic Sciences and the Romanian Banking Institute, being appointed by Parliament for a period of 9 years.

    Romania, which already has an excessive deficit procedure launched by Brussels in its name, has, under the fresh European fiscal rules, seven years to go back to a budget deficit of 3% of the GDP. Pundits believe that in order to gradually curb this deficit one needs to implement a realistic programme.

    The latest report Romania – Euro Zone Monitor made by a team of Central Bank experts coordinated by Academician Daniel Daianu, points to the fact that a rise in budget incomes is absolutely necessary and cannot be limited to only an improved tax collection system, but calls for amendments to the present fiscal regime, and a budgetary correction for a period of over four years.

    In essence, the budget deficit is caused by excessive spending in a context of higher nominal incomes and rapidly growing expenditures, according to the report.

    The pressure on the public budget is going to rise if we take into account Romania’s pledge to also spend 2.5% of the GDP for military purposes as a NATO member, the authors of the report say.

    The extremely lower level of fiscal returns is the exclusive result of a fiscal regime which favored tax evasion and the inclusion of personal spending in the budget of various companies as well as illegal working contracts, the report also says.

    (bill)

  • Fiscal measures to reduce the budget deficit

    Fiscal measures to reduce the budget deficit


    A state budget deficit significantly above the target has prompted the Romanian authorities to take steps to address the situation.



    The finance minister Marcel Boloș announced on Thursday that this set of tax-related measures must be endorsed in September, first of all in order to ensure that EU funding is not suspended.



    “Not implementing these measures or implementing them too late would lead to a budget deficit of around 7% of GDP,” Marcel Boloș explained, and warned that this is a turning point for Romania.



    The set of changes announced by the finance minister includes measures targeting multinational corporations and a 10-fold increase in fines in order to curb tax evasion. Adding to these are increased royalties, even 1000 times, for mineral resources and hydrocarbons, and an extensive reorganization plan for the national tax administration agency in order to improve revenue collection.



    Marcel Boloş: “It is unfair for companies that develop mineral resources and have billions in turnover and huge profits to pay minimal, even insulting royalties to the state budget. These will be rearranged, and some royalty categories will be even 1,000 times higher. It is only reasonable. These are royalties for the exploitation of mineral resources and hydrocarbons as well as for the land itself, and it is ridiculous and absurd for the state budget to receive RON 2.5 million for 300,000 hectares.ˮ



    As for the measures targeting the public sector, Marcel Boloş mentioned decentralization and the regionalisation of public services, so as to eliminate what he called the “splurge” of public money.



    “We need a lot less bureaucracy, a lot more thoughtfulness in spending public money,ˮ Marcel Boloș pointed out. According to him, these measures are expected to have a combined impact of 2% of GDP.



    Meanwhile, the news from the Fiscal Council is not encouraging. The institution made an upward adjustment of its budget deficit forecast, and says the deficit will be over 6% of GDP unless correction measures are implemented. According to the Councils annual report, the budget deficit for the first half of the year, standing at 2.3% of GDP, is around 0.63% higher than in the corresponding period of last year. The reasons have to do with the slower dynamics of certain categories of revenues and an increase in spending above the levels in the budget law. The Council reiterated the importance of introducing immediate corrections and of substantially increasing tax revenues. (AMP)


  • August 7, 2023

    August 7, 2023

    Spending. The government is this week planning
    to adopt an emergency order to cut public spending. The fifty measures
    envisaged include reducing the number of management and under-secretary positions,
    the merger of various institutions and eliminating holiday vouchers for some
    budget employees. According to estimates from the finance ministry, this would
    save the state budget more than 1.2 billion euros by the end of the year. The
    government is also planning an emergency order introducing a number of tax
    changes aimed at increasing budget revenues. Talks on the subject are still
    ongoing between the two parties in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic
    Party and the National Liberal Party, amid criticism from the business
    community.








    Summit. Romania will continue to
    stand by Ukraine as long as it takes to win this war, said the presidential
    advisor and former foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu at the Ukraine peace talks
    in Saudi Arabia. Any future solution for peace must guarantee Ukraine’s security
    within its internationally recognised borders and the freedom to hold sovereign
    elections, free of interference, the Romanian official also said. According to
    the BBC, the summit’s final declaration only refers to the decision to hold
    further peace talks. The summit was attended by senior officials from dozens of
    countries, including Brazil, India, China and South Africa, with Russia not
    invited.










    Defence. The Romanian defence
    minister Angel Tîlvăr is today making an official visit to the Republic of
    Moldova following an invitation from his counterpart in Chişinău, Anatolie
    Nosatîi. According to the defence ministry in Bucharest, the agenda of talks
    features the stage of bilateral cooperation in the area of defence, as well as
    issues related to cooperation in a NATO and EU context and in the region, from
    a security perspective and amid the challenges arising from Russia’s war of
    aggression against Ukraine.






    Pensions. Romanian senators and
    deputies are to return to Parliament this week to again amend a bill adopted at
    the end of June on the special pensions enjoyed by a number of professional
    categories in Romania, such as magistrates, the military and the police. Prime
    minister Marcel Ciolacu said he summoned a special session of Parliament as a
    number of articles of the bill were declared unconstitutional last week.
    According to official figures, the number of special pensions is growing, with
    over 10,000 recorded in July, up from the previous month. The highest special
    pension amounted to around 4,300 euros. Romania has committed to reforming the
    special pensions system in order to receive the recovery and resilience funds
    allocated by the European Union.




    Bank. The board of the National Bank of Romania
    is meeting today to discuss issues of monetary policy. At last month’s meeting,
    it maintained the monetary policy interest rate at 7% a year and said it
    expected the inflation rate to drop over the coming months. On Friday, the
    ROBOR three-month index used to calculate variable interest rates in the national
    currency went up to 6.43% from 6.41%, according to data published by the
    National Bank.






    Travel. The Romanian foreign ministry has warned
    Romanian citizens currently in Norway or planning to travel there that the Norwegian
    authorities have issued a series of weather alerts until 10th
    August. Red and orange codes are in place warning of heavy rain, strong winds,
    flooding, landslides and fires. The storms that hit southern Norway are estimated
    to be the strongest in the last 25 years. (CM)

  • August 2, 2023

    August 2, 2023

    BUDGET The ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party carry on talks on the fiscal measures that must be implemented in order to reduce the state budget deficit. Overall public expenditure cuts of some EUR 1.2 bln are targeted, concurrently with tax increases by a similar amount. Public institution mergers, the scrapping of 200,000 public sector jobs that are currently vacant, personnel downsizing and cuts in the management allowances paid by public companies are some of the measures considered by the government. The 2 parties have also agreed on 2 VAT rates, 9% and 19%, although a 5% VAT rate will be in place as an exception for books alone. The Social Democrats and the Liberals however differ as regards a proposed additional 1% tax on luxury homes and on the profits of companies with more than EUR 100 mln in turnover.



    E-COMMERCE Last year Romanians spent nearly EUR 7 bln online, one-quarter of the amount on clothes and footwear alone. According to a survey, the Romanian e-commerce market comprises a rough 100 online stores reporting over 1,000 orders per day. One in 5 Romanians regularly order online, and 50% of them do so twice every 3 months. In Europe, the share of online shopping rose from 55% in 2012 to 75% in 2022, with the highest increases reported in Estonia, the Czech Republic and Romania.



    FORESTRY A new draft Forestry Code was released for public consultation on Tuesday in Romania. The surface areas where forest clearing is banned will be increased approx. 10 fold, and the vehicles that carry wood illegally will be seized. The bill will also enable the government to take over the task of reforesting land that has been cleared and subsequently abandoned by its owners. The measures come after the European Commission initiated an infringement procedure against Romania for failure to implement several environment-related directives.



    FOREIGN AFFAIRS The Romanian foreign ministry warns citizens who are traveling or intend to travel to the Italian island of Sardinia that local authorities there have issued a code orange alert for wildfire risks. On the other hand, the ministry also announced it was taking steps to repatriate 4 Romanian nationals from Niger, as the security situation in that country is worsening.



    UKRAINE Russia’s continued attacks against the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on Danube, in the proximity of Romania, are unacceptable. These are war crimes and they further affect Ukraine’s capacity to transfer their food products towards those in need in the world, the president of Romania Klaus Iohannis posted on Wednesday on social media. A Russian drone attack hit Ukrainian port infrastructure in Izmail, on the Danube, close to NATO-member Romania. According to Kyiv, the attack caused fires at the port and industrial infrastructure and damaged the elevator there. Russia started targeting Ukraine’s ports after terminating a UN deal enabling the country’s grain exports via the Black Sea.



    UNTOLD Thousands of gendarmes, firefighters, anti-drug and local police officers, as well as 800 private security guards, have been mobilized for the 4-day music festival UNTOLD in Cluj-Napoca, which begins on Thursday, to make sure that safety measures are complied with by all participants. Two mobile hospitals and 3 first-aid stations will be located near the festival site. The line-up for the 8th edition of UNTOLD, one of the largest music festivals in Europe, includes over 250 artists from Romania and abroad. Tens of thousands of music lovers from around the world are expected to attend. (AMP)


  • Measures to reduce public spending

    Measures to reduce public spending

    With a budget deficit in the first 3 months of the
    year above the government’s estimates, an emergency order designed to help
    reduce budget expenditure was adopted at the end of last week in Bucharest.


    The finance ministry, which drafted the order at the request
    of PM Nicolae Ciucă, mainly focused on cutting non-urgent spending. The order
    sets monthly expenditure ceilings for each ministry, and reduces expenses with
    goods and services procurement by 10%, except for those in the public
    healthcare and education sectors. The order also freezes hiring in the public
    sector, with exceptions to be endorsed in separate government memoranda, the
    finance minister Adrian Câciu explained:


    Adrian Câciu: Exams or contests to fill permanent or
    temporary vacancies in the public sector will be suspended, except for unique
    positions. Basically, the various sectors will apply for governmental
    derogations, in separate memoranda, in case further hiring is necessary,
    including in public healthcare and education.


    The decision concerns the nearly 1.3 million posts in
    public institutions and authorities in Romania this March, around 64% of them
    in central public administration, according to data made public by the finance
    ministry. The largest number of people, nearly 300,000, are employed by the
    education ministry, another 125,000 by the interior ministry, 72,000 by the
    defence ministry, 25,000 by the finance ministry and 19,000 by the health
    ministry.


    Adrian Câciu also said that the clause concerning a
    bonus for Ph.D. holders has been scrapped, and new rules in this respect will
    be introduced in a future salary law.


    The number of jobs in the PM’s office will be cut down
    to a half, and the same person will no longer be allowed to be a member of the
    board of directors of more than 2 public companies. Moreover, public
    institutions will no longer be permitted to purchase cars, furniture and office
    equipment this year.


    The order also introduces a short farm-to-fork chain,
    reducing the number of intermediate operators between farmers and consumers, in
    an effort to protect the national agrifood industry. To this end, schools,
    hospitals and military units will be bound to comply with strict rules
    concerning the procurement of Romanian-produced foodstuffs for their cafeterias
    and mess halls.


    According to the finance ministry, the measures will
    lead to estimated overall savings of little over EUR 1 bln by the end of this
    year. (AMP)

  • May 12, 2023 UPDATE

    May 12, 2023 UPDATE

    GOVERNMENT The Government of Romania passed an emergency
    order on rebalancing the state budget, in a special meeting on Friday, the
    finance minister Adrian Câciu announced. He outlined the key measures in the plan, including a 10% reduction on
    expenditure with products and services, except for expenses in public
    healthcare and education, and a ban on procuring, leasing and rentals of automobiles
    and office equipment in public institutions. One exception is the car scrapping
    programme for the public authorities purchasing non-polluting vehicles. The
    programme is designed to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport
    sector, by encouraging the use of eco-friendly vehicles. The
    finance minister also announced that the number of advisers to officials in
    central administration structures, currently standing at around 900, will be
    reduced by one-half following the implementation of the emergency order aimed
    at making public spending more efficient.


    INFLATION In Romania,
    the year-on-year inflation rate dropped significantly in April, to 11.23% compared
    to nearly 15% in March. While this does not mean that products and services are
    growing cheaper, the rise in prices has nonetheless slowed down. According to
    data released by the National Statistics Institute on Friday, there are
    products that were more affordable in April than in March, including sunflower
    oil. Also on Friday, the National Bank confirmed that this downward trend in
    consumer price increase will continue. But the central bank governor Mugur
    Isărescu also warned those who have or are planning to take out loans in
    foreign currencies, and said that interest rates for the euro and US dollar
    will increase further. The National Bank forecasts a 7.1% inflation rate for
    the end of this year, as against 7% announced previously, and a 4.2% rate for
    the end of next year. Mugur Isărescu added that prices for fruit and vegetables
    will likely continue to go up for another 2 months, as the yield will be
    affected by the weather conditions in Europe, the drought in Spain and the
    aftermath of the earthquakes in Turkey.


    ENERGY The Polytechnic University in Bucharest officially launched
    the first NuScale Energy Exploration (E2) Centre outside the United States on
    Friday. The centre hosts a simulator of the NuScale Power’s VOYGR™ small
    modular reactor (SMR) power plant control room, and will educate and train the
    next generation of nuclear engineers to operate advanced civil nuclear reactor
    technologies while establishing Romania as a regional educational and training
    hub for the next stage of civil nuclear deployments across Romania and Europe,
    reads a news release issued by the US Embassy in Bucharest.


    MUSEUMS
    The National Network of Romanian Museums has announced an absolute record
    number of cultural events enlisted as part of the Night of Museums – 297 in
    Romania and 14 in the Republic of Moldova. Bucharest will host around 60 events
    proposed by museums, art galleries, cultural centres, opera houses, choirs,
    palaces, institutes, high schools and music festivals. The special guest of the
    current edition is the War Childhood Museum, for the first time in Romania. The
    exhibition, entitled Listen, is hosted by the Romanian Peasant Museum. Access
    is free of charge.


    AWARD – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will receive the Franz
    Werfel Human Rights Award granted by the German Centre against Expulsions, DPA
    reports. Aged 63, Iohannis will become the 11th winner of this award, granted
    to him for his tireless and multilateral commitment to defending human rights
    and minority rights in Romania and Europe. The award, granted every two years,
    comes along with a money prize of 10,000 euros. Among the previous laureates
    are former German president Joachim Gauck, the winner of Nobel prize in
    Literature, Herta Muller and historian Karl Schlögel. The prize will be awarded
    during a ceremony held on June 4 in Frankfurt, Germany, when a congratulatory
    speech will delivered by former European Commission President Jean Claude
    Juncker.


    YOUTH Over 1,400 Romanian 18-year olds are among the 35,000 beneficiaries
    of free EU travel passes granted this year under the Discover EU programme. In
    order to find out more about the culture and history of the EU and to come in
    touch with people across the continent, the beneficiaries will be able to
    travel by train, individually or in groups of up to 5 people, between June 2023
    and September 2024. The current round of the programme saw more than 145,000 applicants
    from EU member states and Erasmus Plus countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein,
    Norway, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey). (AMP)

  • Government to save more money

    Government to save more money


    With revenue receipts in the first part of the year lower than the estimates, the Romanian government finds itself in the situation of resorting to more spending cuts in an attempt to maintain the budget deficit within its admitted limits. After having assessed the budget structure, experts cautioned over the possibility of overrated budgeted revenues and underrated expenses, as early as last year.


    The coalition government in Bucharest is expected to officially make public the reform package aimed at saving billions of euros by the end of the year. The aforementioned measures have been listed in a draft bill to be approved in the first government sitting. The countrys Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca has again given assurances the measures arent going to affect salaries, jobs or investment as they arent austerity measures but aimed at streamlining the economy.


    Nicolae Ciuca: “Through these fiscal measures, we are going to approve after having made a decision within the coalition, we want to make sure we are going to meet the deficit target. And we are not speaking here of austerity measures because we have seen in the past years that not only the Romanian economy, but any other economy cannot develop and function within its normal parameters based on austerity measures. However, we can definitely speak about improvement measures and the appropriate management of public money.”


    In turn, Finance Minister, Adrian Câciu, explains that it all comes down to streamlining public spending so that it may create the needed fiscal room for support measures for the economy and people. Various publications in Romania have already made public the aforementioned bill aimed at curbing expenditures, which also provides for freezing state employment in 2023 and canceling any pay rise. So personnel expenses in public institutions arent going to exceed those in 2022.


    The bill also provides for procurement and bans any purchase, hire or lease takeovers of cars or office equipment. Only the newly-established public authorities and institutions as well as investment objectives are exempted from this decision. The ordinance also bans the pension-salary accumulation for a state employee except for those working as teachers in various education institutions as well as the specialized personnel in medical units. The measure also targets pensioners from the armed forces, including the incumbent Prime Minister, who is a career serviceman. According to political sources, the document hasnt been endorsed by the coalition yet.


    Against the background of the latest debates on the appropriate public spending, pundits are asking a legitimate question: why temperance and discipline in spending public money are being considered only at times of budget deficit?


    (bill)


  • May 31, 2019

    May 31, 2019

    POPE FRANCIS Pope Francis is on a 3-day state and apostolic visit to Romania, starting today. The visit, whose motto is “Lets Walk Together, takes place 20 years after John Paul II was the first Pope to come to this mostly Orthodox country. The programme in Bucharest today includes meetings with political officials and civil society members, and with the leaders of the Romanian Orthodox Church. A liturgy will be performed at the St. Joseph Catholic Cathedral. As many as 50,000 believers will be present, in and around the cathedral, and 15 screens will be mounted in Bucharest streets for people to be able to watch the ceremony, performed by the Pope in Latin. On Saturday, Pope Francis will be in Şumuleu Ciuc, in a part of Transylvania mostly inhabited by Hungarian Roman Catholics, and in Iasi, in the north-east, a city that is home to a sizeable Romanian Catholic community. On Sunday, His Holiness will travel to Blaj, in central Transylvania, the spiritual capital of Romanian Greek Catholics, where he will beatify 7 Greek Catholic bishops who died for their faith during the communist regime. The Romanian Greek Catholic Church was outlawed and deprived of its assets shortly after the communists seized power, and many clerics and believers were imprisoned. Also in Blaj, the Pope will have a meeting with members of the local Roma community. The visit entailed high-level security measures in the capital city Bucharest, where road traffic restrictions have been introduced and all schools have suspended todays classes.




    FILM Cluj-Napoca in north-western Romania is hosting, starting today until June 8, the 18th edition of the Transylvania International Film Festival. Running in the TIFF official competition are 12 productions, but more than 200 films will be screened as part of the Festival. This years edition celebrates 3 major film industries: the French, Chinese and Albanian. Romanian filmmakers are also well represented, with over 40 productions. Actor Nicolas Cage will receive an award for his contribution to the development of world cinema.




    EU European Union member states spent in 2016 more than 350 billion euros (2.4% of the Unions GDP) on families and children, accounting for 9% of the total social protection spending, according to data made public on Friday by the European Statistics Office (Eurostat). The lowest annual expenditure for family and child protection, below 200 euro/capita, was reported in Romania and Bulgaria (120 euro each), Lithuania (150 euro) and Greece (170 euro), and the highest in Luxemburg (3,000 euro/capita), Denmark (1,700 euro), Sweden (1,400 euro), Germany and Finland (1,200 euro). The Eurostat data were made public ahead of the International Childrens Day, celebrated around the world on June 1.




    ARRESTS Four Romanian and 2 Bulgarian citizens are being investigated for migrant smuggling and for forming an organised crime group, after being apprehended by the Calafat Border Police in south-western Romania trying to cross the Danube on a boat with 7 Iranian citizens attempting to enter Romania illegally. The Border Police Inspectorate General announced on Friday that the 4 Romanians said they were helping the group travel to the west of the country, from where they could get into a Schengen country. The police also said that under a Romanian-Bulgarian protocol, the 7 Iranian citizens were handed over to the Bulgarian border authorities.




    TENNIS The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, the defending Roland Garros champion and seed no. 3, qualified on Thursday into the tournaments 3rd round, after defeating Magda Linette of Poland in 3 sets. In the next stage, Halep will play against the winner of the match between Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia and Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine. The game was suspended on Thursday for light. Irina Begu is the other Romanian player qualified in the Roland Garros singles 3rd round. She will take on Amanda Anisimova (USA).



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • March 19, 2019

    March 19, 2019

    DETENTION The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has voiced concern with what it called the abuse and improper conditions still to be found in Romanian detention centres. In a release made public today following a visit to 10 detention facilities this February, CPT members point to cases of physical ill-treatment by prison personnel and police on detainees as well as violence among detainees. They urge the Interior Ministry and the Romanian Police Inspectorate General to send a clear message that ill-treatment of detained individuals is illegal, unprofessional and will be punished accordingly. The CPT appreciates the efforts made since 2014 to reform the penitentiary system in Romania, particularly in terms of the development of the parole service, a 30% reduction of prison population and the introduction of compensations for those detained in overcrowded prisons.




    EPPO The first round of negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the appointment of the new European chief prosecutor is scheduled for tomorrow. Romanias former anti-corruption chief Laura Codruţa Kövesi is one of the candidates for this post. In case the negotiation teams fail to reach an agreement tomorrow, further rounds will be held on March 27, April 4 and 10. The head of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani has recently sent the Romanian minister delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba, the incumbent chairman of the Council of the EU, the official letter announcing Laura Codruţa Kövesi as the European Parliaments candidate for the chief of the European Public Prosecutors Office. The Council of the EU on the other hand supports Jean-Francois Bohnert, of France. The EPPO, set to be up and running by end-2020, will be an independent body in charge of investigating and prosecuting crimes against the EU budget. The European chief prosecutor has a non-renewable 7-year term in office.




    SOCIAL EU-wide expenditure for social protection amounted to 2,890 billion euro in 2017, accounting for 18.8% of the GDP and for 41.1% of the total government spending, the European statistics bureau Eurostat announced today. Pension benefits accounted for 10% of the Unions GDP. Social protection spending was below 13% of GDP in Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, Latvia, Romania, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, whereas 6 member states—Finland, France, Denmark, Italy, Austria and Sweden—allotted at least 20% of their GDP to this area.




    BREXIT The EU ministers for European affairs convene in Brussels today to prepare the European spring summit. They will also discuss the latest developments in the Brexit case, given that March 29 is the end of the 2-year period since the UK notified its intention to leave the Union. European leaders expect London to state clearly its intentions for the future, and many of them want the European bloc to deny a new extension of the deadline. Until a new vote in the British Parliament on the withdrawal deal, which London has already rejected twice, the EU ministers will analyse the political and judicial consequences of a Brexit deferral. Meanwhile, the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, had meetings with key EU leaders, including the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.





    AWARDS Odeon Theatre in Bucharest hosted last night the 19th edition of the Radio Romania Culture Awards Gala. The event rewarded the most important achievements in Romanian culture last year. Recipients included writer Gabriela Adameşteanu, stage director Radu Afrim, and screenplay writer Ivana Mladenović. “Teach for Romania Association won the section on education, for projects conducted in schools in underprivileged communities. A lifetime achievement award also went to pianist Valentin Gheorghiu.




    VOLLEYBALL The Romanian womens volleyball team CSM Alba Blaj is playing at home today against the Italian side Yamamay e-work Busto Arsizio, in the first leg of the CEV Cup finals. The second leg is scheduled next week in Italy. In the semis the Romanians beat their co-nationals of Ştiinţa Bacău (3-nil in both legs), and the Italians outplayed the Hungarian team Swietelsky Bekescsaba. Last year, Alba lost the Champions League finals to the Turkish side VakifBank Istanbul.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)