February 11, 2019

Romanian Parliament debates final version of the draft budget; Romanian finance minister attends Eurogroup meeting

România Internațional, 11.02.2019, 14:10

BUDGET – Monday is the last day for MPs to introduce amendments to the draft state budget passed past Friday by the coalition government. Debates are scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday in the joint budget and finance committees. On Wednesday the draft budget goes under plenary debate, with the final vote on Friday. The draft budget was designed based on an expected economic growth of 5.5%, a 2.5% deficit, and a GDP around 200 billion Euro. Part of the budget design is the earmarking of 2% of the GDP to NATO, in line with alliance commitments, as well as a 15% rise in pension benefits as of September. The opposition sharply criticized the timeline of the budget, and its assumptions, which it deems unrealistic.

FINANCE – Romanian Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici takes part today in Brusssels in the expanded Eurogroup meeting, to discuss the proposal on the budget for convergence and competitiveness, according to the line ministry. On Tuesday, Teodorovici will chair the second meeting of the EU Council for Economy and Finance. The agenda includes the vote on the compromise proposal of the Romanian presidency of the European Council on the package of the European financial supervision system, and the conclusions of the report on fiscal sustainability, and the EU budget construction for 2020.

TENNIS – Romanias womens tennis team defeated the Czech Republic 3-2 in the Fed Cup and qualified to the semi-finals, where they will be playing the French team. On Sunday, in the decisive game, the double Irina Begu- Monica Niculescu defeated 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, against the number one pair in the world, Barbora Krejciova/ Katerina Siniakova. In the singles, Simona Halep, 3rd seeded in the world, defeated Karolina Pliskova, 5th seeded, and Katerina Siniakova, 44th seeded. Mihaela Busarnescu, 29th seeded, was defeated by both Siniakova and Pliskova. This is the second presence Romania has in the top four in the competition past the year 1973.

FLU — The number of people who have succumbed to the flu in Romania has reached 105, according to the National Public Health Institute. Healthcare Minister Sorina Pintea announced that the epidemic cannot be expected to tone down yet. According to official data, last week 3,000 cases of flu were confirmed, as well as over 145,000 cases of respiratory viral conditions.

BERLIN — Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will take part on Saturday in the 55th edition of the security conference in Munich, Germany, which hosts the most important world leaders every year. The event is centered around transatlantic cooperation, and President Iohannis goes to the conference to speak on behalf of NATO guaranteeing Euro-Atlantic security. President Iohannis previously attended the Munich conference in 2016 as well.

EUROSTAT — Of the almost 18 million engineers and scientists in the EU in 2017, 59% were men and 41% were women, according to the Eurostat. In Romania, of the 540,400 engineers and scientists, almost 314,000 were men, and 227,000 were women. Men are overrepresented in high technology industries, where 83% were men, while in the services sector the situation is much more balanced, with 55% men and 45% women. In five EU member states, women make up the majority of engineers and scientists: Lithuania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Portugal, and Denmark.