Romania's new Liberal government led by Ludovic Orban has adopted a fiscal and budget strategy for 2020-2022, accompanying the state budget for next year. Here are key points of the strategy.
A Hunedoara, Romania-based plant controlled by ArcelorMittal has threatened to suspend production as a reaction to market conditions and high energy prices. The threat came a day after Romanian PM Ludovic Orban himself also talked about state assistance that should be given to siderurgic and petrochemical companies because of high energy and natural gas prices. But official figures are different than those circulated by the PM and ArcelorMittal.
What happens to Ukraine now is a projection of Russia over the former Socialist regions, a return to the sphere of influence that the Soviet Union used to have, Ukrainian Ambassador to Romania Oleksandr Bankov has said in an interview with HotNews.ro.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis caused a stir this week with a decision to strip top personalities who have received prison sentences of their state honours. This comes after one of these personalities, in his capacity of recipient of a state order, showed up at a reception thrown by the Presidency for the National Day on December 1.
Romania's Parliament has adopted a bill allowing for the acquisition of five more F16 figher planes from Portugal. The planes are due to go through a modernising process by the US. The planes would then join the other 12 F16s owned by Romanian Air Forces and all would go trough an upgrading process, most probably at the Aerostar Bacau plant.
S&P Global Ratings has revised its outlook on Romania from stable to negative due to rising fiscal and external deficits, while affirming its long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings at 'BBB-/A-3'. It pointed to planned wage and pension increases largely decided by the previous Social Democratic government as contributor to widening the country's current account deficit.
FintechOS announced today that it has raised a 14 milion USD 14M Series A round to continue its hyper accelerated growth and further development of the platform, StartupCafe.ro reports.
Romania's Liberal government is to discuss in a session on Tuesday a series of key projects for which it plans to take responsibility before the parliament - measures it describes as necessary to mend the harm done by the previous Social Democratic (PSD) majority.
Romania's first post-Communist President Ion Iliescu, who hasn't showed up in public for two and a half years, has given an interview to Russian state-controlled agency TASS in which he spoke, among other things, of the importance of more normal relations between the two countries, Romanian news channel Digi24 reports.
With many months still to go until local elections take place in Romania, struggles have emerged within a key opposition alliance as preparations start for the Bucharest polls. The announcement of a maverick candidate for Bucharest mayor this weekend promises to reveal the capacity - or incapacity - of the opposition USR-PLUS alliance to really produce change.
- UPDATE The USR-PLUS alliance announced later on Monday that it would have common candidates for all city halls across the country. It said a timetable for candidate selection would be decided within weeks. For Bucharest, it said it would pick one between Vlad Voiculescu (PLUS) and Nicusor Dan (independent candidate supported by USR Bucharest).
The Finance minister of Romania's new Liberal government on Monday accused his predecessor and the prime minister of the previous Social Democratic government of knowing well in advance and hiding prospects of a 4% deficit. "It was all premeditated, they put their personal interest above the interest of Romania," minister Florin Citu said.
The Romanian government is considering a possible ban on log exports to countries outside of the EU, Environment minister Costel Alexe has told news channel Digi24. His statement comes after President Klaus Iohannis was quoted on Thursday as saying he was woried about the proportions of wood cutting in Romania, half of which is done illegally.
Official figures on air pollution in Bucharest, as announced by the official system monitoring air quality, show that pollution limits in Romania's capital city have been exceeded for 2018, according to news agency Mediafax. It quotes a Greenpeace Romania warning that the monitoring system does not work properly despite authorities knowing about setbacks.
Romania's government would push for a re-consideration of categories of classified information regarding mineral, oil and gas resources. This comes at the request of investors in these sectors, which was made during working sessions with representatives of the government, a top government official said on Thursday.
New, Liberal Romanian PM Ludovic Orban claimed on Thursday he was a "simple man" with an "austere" living to explain how he managed to live on little more than 3,000 lei (some 650 euro ) per month last year, while his wife did not state any income at all. He made the statement after the figures appeared in the wealth statement he has submitted.
A prosecutor who has failed for seven times to become head of a controversial new body aimed at policing the judiciary has withdrawn from the procedure to be nominated in that position. Prosecutor Alina Florea, who has faced fiece opposition, thus appears out of contention as head of the controversial Section charged with investigating Justice Crimes.
Dozens of people armed with plastic basins showed up before the Bucharest city hall on Thurday, to protest the massive fails in heating and hot water distribution which has affected the Romanian capital city for months.
A draft bill to repel a law on compensatory appeal, which has allowed for the release of thousands of inmates before time, was voted by Romanian deputies on Wednesday.
The business people of Romanian origin known as the Micula brothers and their companies have managed to set a distraint on 67 million shares held by the Romanian state in major energy company Nuclearelectrica. This comes as coverage for a debt amounting to Eur 395 million the Romanian state has to pay the Miculas.
Some 15 people are suspect of having engaged in sexual acts with their own children and and providing the resulting footage to American citizens through an online application. Prosecutors from Romania's key body dealing with organised crime DIICOT raided locations in Bucharest and the counties of Ilfov, Galati, Ialomita, Olt, Prahova and Iasi and confiscated telecom and data storage units.
A little over 50% of Romanian pupils are able to use knowledge accumulated in school in their everyday lives, as shown in resuts of PISA 2018 tests published on Tuesday. In this edition of the tests, Romania scored even poorer results than in testing made in 2015 and 2018 in the program aimed at checking the capacity of pupils to adapt their knowledge to their social and economic lives.
de Editorial Staff HotNews.ro
Romania's new Liberal Government has approved a draft budget correction with Finance minister Florin Citu announcing that it has set a budget deficit of 4.4% for the year. Two days ago, the deficit had been set to 4.3%, but supplementary changes to cover late payments in education and health have been made.
The leadership of Romania's biggest party, the Social Democrats (PSD), was dissolved late on Tuesday and an interim leader is taking over, sources told HotNews.ro as PSD bosses met in a special session. The news was later confirmed officially.
Russian Ambassador to Bucharest Velery Kuzmin was summoned urgently to the Romanian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday over a recent, unprecedented attack on the Custodian of the Romanian Crown, Margareta of Romania, official sources have told HotNews.ro.
- UPDATE In a statement later on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said that it has pointed that the position of the Russian diplomatic mission was unacceptable.
The budget deficit of Romania may go up to 4.3% by the end of the year, according to a draft correction published by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday. It confirmed a previous HotNews.ro report on Monday that said the deficit for the year would stay between 4.1-4.3%.
The leader of Romania's biggest party, Viorica Dancila of the Social Democrats (PSD), has reportedly been persuaded to resign as party president after her defeat in presidential elections on Sunday, sources told HotNews.ro on Monday afternoon.
Camps are shaping up in a battle for power within Romania's biggest political party, the Social Democrats (PSD), in wake of the defeat suffered by their candidate, party president and ex-PM, in presidential elections on Sunday. In statements made on Monday morning, an influential member of the PSD leadership openly invoked the need of a resignation.
The president of the Republic of Moldova Igor Dodon has congratulated Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis over his re-election in a presidential poll on Sunday. He used a Facebook message to convey that the two countries should "stay away from false geopolitical debates".
The custom of the biggest political party in post-Communist Romania, the Social Democrats -PSD, long seen as inheritors of the former Communists - is to remove their leader following a defeat in presidential elections. On Sunday night, as PSD's candidate Viorica Dancila suffered a significant defeat against incumbent, Liberal president Klaus Iohannis in presidential elections, knives were sharpening again within the party.
Incumbent president Klaus Iohannis received 66.05% of the votes in the presidential elections on Sunday while his rival, Social Democratic (PSD) leader Viorica Dancila got 33.95% of the votes, according to provisional data based on results from 99.86% of polling stations showed early on Monday.
Incumbent president Klaus Iohannis defeated rival Viorica Dancila with a score of 64.8% to 35.2% in the second round of presidential elections on Sunday, according to an exit poll by polling institutes CURS-Avangarde. Another poll by IRES institute showed a score of 66.5%-33.5% in favor of Iohannis. It was a smashing victory for the man who ran for a second term in office, as Romanians showed up at polling stations in larger numbers than in the first round of elections to vote in what was seen a popular rebuke to Dancila's Social Democratic government of recent years.
The winner of Romania's presidential elections on Sunday, incumbent president Klaus Iohannis said as exit polls were announced that his victory was "the most important one against the [Social Democratic Party] PSD" and a victory of "normal Romania". For her part, loser Viorica Dancila of the PSD noted he appeared to have won more votes than her party in the European elections earlier this year.
Romanians vote for their president this weekend in elections that pitch incumbent president Klaus Iohannis against ex-prime minister Viorica Dancila. While Iohannis seen as a clear favorite, the vote has major symbolic significance: at the end of a largely uneventful, dull campaign, it would test how strong Dancila's Social Democrats, blamed for a long series of abuses against the rule of law, remain after being removed from government this fall.
Some 38.6 million cubic meters of wood is cut in Romania annually - almost double the official figures, with the difference resulting from illegal deforestation mostly in privately owned forests. As he presented the figures on Friday, Environment minister Costel Alexe described them as shocking.
Huawei Vice-President Catherine Chen hopes Romania would not align to the US position on banning the access of the Asian giant to building 5G networks in Romania, but would act based on facts, tests and risk assessments. The way that, she says, is pursued in countries like Britain, France or Germany or by the European Commission.
News that Exxon Mobil is planning to sell up to USD 25 billion of oil and gas field across the world to focus on mega-projects, as reported by Reuters on Thursday, contrasts, when in comes to Romania, whith statements made by incumbent president Klaus Iohannis in an electoral debate earlier this week.
The US Senate voted on Wednesday to name lawyer Adrian Zuckerman as Ambassador of the United States to Romania, news agency Mediafax reports, quoting The Washington Post. The vote was 65-30.
The deputy of the US Ambassador to Romania, Abigail Rupp, was taken off stage by the Turkish consul to the SE Romanian city of Constanta as she was preparing to hold a speech on religious freedom at an event of the local Muslim community. The Embassy said the incident was regrettable.
Dan Barna, the leader of Save Romania Union (USR), the third biggest party in the Parliament, was re-elected as head of the political group despite a serious defeat in the first round of presidential elections.
The European Commission asks Romania's Liberal (PNL) government on Wednesday to adopt measures in order to limit public spending in 2020, a year which will see both local and general elections.
The two candidates in the final round of Romania's presidential elections each held a "debate" on their own on Tuesday evening, not facing each other but only journalists to discuss everything to the influence of Chinese companies to how to compute the area of a circle - and, in this latter case, not knowing the proper answer.
- See what they said - or even what they didn't say - during their talks
Preparations were ongoing on Monday for what appears to be the most important electoral event prior to presidential elections due to take place this weekend: a debate that incumbent President and top contender Klaus Iohannis will hold on Tuesday with political experts and journalists, but in the absence of his challenger, Social Democratic leader Viorica Dancila.
Three people - a 10-day old baby, a 3-year old child and the latter's mother died and six other people, including 3 children, were hospitalised following a neurotoxin alert in a building in Timisoara, Western Romania on Monday.
A bear agonized for 18 hours this weekend, after it was hit by a car in Harghita county, Central Romania until authorities decided to intervene and put an end to its suffering. The case, which shocked the public, rose questions about the lack of action from people in charge and their not giving any sort of relevant consideration to the safety of wild animals along traffic routes.
Custom authorities in Kinshasa, Congo were notified this weekend about a case of pangolin scales trafficking, RFI has reported, quoted by Romanian news agency Agerpres. The scales were worth about EUR 1.5 million and were due to reach Romania via Istanbul.
An Interior Ministry report on violence during massive anti-government protests that took place in Bucharest on August 10 last year sheds light on key links between riot police decision makers and politicians, sources have told HotNews.ro.
A Romanian deputy caused a scandal late on Wednesday when he was stopped by the police after crossing through a red light in Bucharest, news agency Mediafax reported. Early on Thursday, the police told news channel Digi 24 that the politician did not in fact cross through the red light, despite footage apparently showing so.
The growth of Romanian economy stood at 0.6% in Q3 this year, as compared to the previous quarter. Compared to Q3 2018, the GDP gre 3.0%, while yoy growth for the first nine months of the year was of 4.0%, according to flash data of the National Statistics Institute on Thursday.
A refusal by President Klaus Iohannis to face his challenger in the second round of Romania's presidential elections has caused widespread discussion about his (non)democratic behaviour. But in a meeting with the press on Wednesday, he made the debate even more complicated by explaining he refused to discuss with and thus legitimise someone who represents an un democratic party.
Romania's former Justice minister Ana Birchall, who served in the last Social Democratic (PSD) government, was ousted from the PSD in a party leadership session on Tuesday night. The session was marked by scandal but key members appeared later to have regrouped behind PSD leader Viorica Dancila, who is due to face incumbent President Klaus Iohannis in the final round of presidential elections later this month.