December 12, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 12.12.2023, 20:00

MOLDOVA The president of Romania Klaus Iohannis had talks on Tuesday with
his Moldovan counterpart, Maia Sandu, during which he reiterated Romania’s
support for Moldova’s EU accession efforts. Romania, Iohannis emphasised, firmly
supports the opening of EU accession negotiations with the Republic of Moldova.
Wednesday through Friday president Iohannis takes part in the EU – Western Balkans
Summit and the European Council meeting in Brussels, in which context he will
plead for a decision with respect to the start of accession negotiations with
Ukraine and Moldova. Also on Tuesday, the Romanian PM Marcel Ciolacu had a telephone
conversation with the Moldovan PM Dorin
Recean, in which he reiterated Bucharest’s steady support for the neighbouring
country’s EU accession. The two prime ministers also discussed bilateral
cooperation projects, especially in the field of cross-border energy
interconnection and the financial assistance provided by Romania for Moldova’s
development.

SCHENGEN The Romanian interior
minister Cătălin Predoiu highlighted, in a statement following the Salzburg
Forum in Slovenia on Tuesday, the progress made in the talks concerning Romania’s
Schengen accession. He said he had talks regarding the technical options for a
decision to be made in December. As regards the fears concerning the transfer
of illegal migrants in Austria, Predoiu explained that those concerns exclusively
relate to the migrants originally registered in Romania. According to the
current Dublin regulation, once captured in Austria and proved to be illegal
migrants, these individuals are returned to the country from which they came, the
Romanian official added. In 2023, 120 people were in this situation, Predoiu
mentioned.

ECONOMY Romania’s budget deficit in 2024 will be
below 5% of GDP, lower than at the end of this year. According to the Romanian
government made up of the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal
Party, next year substantial additional funding will be earmarked for public
education, healthcare, transports and investments. Under the draft 2024 state
budget, salaries in the public sector as well as pensions will be raised. The
government promises that all these increases will be operated without
concurrent tax raises. The leaders of the ruling coalition parties rely on a
planned set of measures to increase budget revenue collection and curb tax
evasion, as well as on the digitization of the national tax agency.

AGREEMENT
The Romanian foreign ministry took note of the publication of the Russian
Federation’s government decision to withdraw from the bilateral agreement of
2005 concerning the opening of a Romanian consulate general in Rostov-on-Don. According
to a news release issued on Tuesday, Romania has not been officially notified
yet on this decision. At present, apart from the embassy in Moscow, Romania
also operates a consular office in Rostov-on-Don and one in Sankt Petersburg. This
summer the Romanian foreign ministry requested Moscow to reduce the number of
diplomatic personnel at the Russian embassy in Bucharest by 40.

VISIT The PM of
Romania, Marcel Ciolacu, Tuesday received the foreign minister and deputy PM of
the Republic of Kazakhstan, Murat Nurtleu, in which context the head of the
Romanian government emphasised that the excellent dynamics of bilateral
relations ensure great potential to the bilateral cooperation towards the
interconnection between Europe and the Caspian Sea region. According to a news
release issued by the Romanian government, the Romanian PM hailed the upward
trend of the political dialogue and economic cooperation between the two
countries and mentioned that Kazakhstan is Romania’s largest economic partner
in Central Asia. As regards the cooperation in the energy sector, the two
parties agreed to encourage cooperation in order to enhance the security of
energy supplies for the EU member states as well as for the Republic of Moldova
and Ukraine, reads the news release. The two officials also discussed the
regional security situation in the context of Russia’s military aggression in
Ukraine.

TENNIS The
Romanian tennis player Simona Halep will be heard at the Court of Arbitration
for Sport in Lausanne on February 7-9, in proceedings initiated by Halep
against the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA). In October, the twice
Grand Slam winner lodged an appeal with the CAS against her 4-year suspension
for doping. The Romanian athlete was penalised for two separate violations of
the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme, the first one concerning the identification
of a banned substance at the 2022 US Open, and the second one concerning
irregularities in her biological passport. (AMP)