December 4, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 04.12.2022, 19:00

Schengen. The European Union’s Justice and Home
Affairs Council is expected in a few days to decide on the entry into Schengen
of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. A unanimous vote is required, but Austria’s
home affairs minister Gerhard Gartner told the Austrian
newspaper Kurier that his country is opposed to Romania’s and Bulgaria’s
admission on account of their unresolved problems with the protection of the
EU’s external borders, and the rejection of asylum applicants and their
distribution. Austria has in fact requested that the admission of Romania and
Bulgaria should not be put to vote during the upcoming meeting on 8th
December. Austria is now the only EU member state to still oppose the admission
of Romania and Bulgaria into Schengen. The Dutch government announced on Friday
that the Dutch Parliament would approve the admission of Romania and Croatia
but has objections with respect to Bulgaria because of issues relating to
corruption and the rule of law. Sweden has also spoken in favour of Romania’s
entry. The European Commission called on the Council to take the necessary
decisions without delay to allow for the full entry of Romania, Bulgaria and
Croatia to the Schengen area.

Reaction. Bulgaria’s president Rumen Radev described as cynical the
refusal of some EU partners to accept his country into Schengen, while the
interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev rejected claims by
Austria and The Netherlands that Bulgaria is not taking enough measures to halt
the wave of illegal migrants. Every day, the Bulgarian border police officers are
protecting with their bodies the security of all European citizens, including
the Dutch, on the EU’s most difficult border, despite increasing migratory
pressure, which has grown four times since last year, said the Bulgarian
interior minister in a statement, and recalled that three Bulgarian border
police officers were recently killed in an incident on the Turkish border.

Finance.
The Romanian finance ministry published an emergency order containing the main
fiscal and budgetary measures to come into effect from 1st January
2023. The bill is subject to public consultation until 8th December.
Under the bill, public sector salaries are
to grow by 10% and pensions by 12.5%. Pensioners earning under 600 euros a
month will also benefit from additional assistance in the form of two separate
payments, while those earning under 400 euros a month will receive aid to pay
their energy bills. Special pensions for the local elected officials are
suspended until 2024. The bill also provides for special benefits for people
with disabilities and raising the minimum wage to 3,000 lei.

Maize.
Romania’s maize yield this year is the lowest since
2007, having dropped by 40-50% compared with previous years because of the
drought, said agriculture minister Petre Daea. He gave
assurances, however, that the production will be enough to meet demands from
the internal markets, and that some will also be exported. The minister also
said Romania had a yield of over 2 million tonnes of sunflower seeds, which is
twice as much as the country’s needs. Despite the difficult weather conditions this
year, over 9 million tonnes of wheat were harvested and stored. Last year,
Romania was the European Union’s biggest producer of maize and its fourth largest
wheat producer. Since 2015, Romania has been the bloc’s biggest producer of
sunflower seeds.

Oil.
The European Union will impose from Monday a 60-dollar-per-barrel price cap on
Russian oil. The cap was established by the European Union, the G7 countries
and Australia in order to reduce the revenues obtained by Russia from its oil
sales in the context of the war this country generated in Ukraine. Ukraine’s
president Volodymyr Zelensky described the decision as not serious, given that
the current price is 65 dollars per barrel. He called for a lower cap of 30
dollars per barrel. Many experts believe, however, that this would destabilise
the global oil market and lead to an uncontrolled rise in prices. According to news agencies,
Russia has already warned it will no longer deliver oil to the countries that
impose price caps.