February 13, 2024 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 13.02.2024, 20:00

VISIT The PM
of Romania, Marcel Ciolacu, will be on an official visit to Rome on February
14-15, and will take part in the 3rd joint government meeting of Romania and
Italy, held 13 years after the previous inter-governmental summit. PM Ciolacu
will have meetings with the PM of Italy, Georgia Meloni, and will attend a
meeting of the 2 official delegations and the signing of bilateral documents. His
agenda also includes talks with the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, and a
meeting with the Romanian community in Italy. Italy is one of Romania’s most
important economic partners, and the Economic Forum focusing on areas such as IT&C,
energy, the processing industry, infrastructure and the agri-food industry is
another excellent opportunity to improve our economic cooperation, PM Marcel
Ciolacu said. Marcel Ciolacu will also be received by His Holiness Pope Francis
at the Vatican.

INTERESTS The
National Bank of Romania Tuesday decided to keep the monetary policy interest
rate at 7% per year, the institution announced. The central bank will also keep
the credit facility interest rate at 8% per year and the deposit facility
interest rate at 6% per year, and also maintain the current levels of the
compulsory minimum reserve rates for banks’ national and foreign currency
liabilities. The key interest rate has not been changed since last January, when
the National Bank decided to raise it from 6.75% to 7% per year. A balanced mix
of macroeconomic policies and structural reforms, including the use of EU
funding to encourage the country’s growth potential in the long run, are vital
to maintaining macroeconomic stability and to strengthening the Romanian
economy’s capacity to withstand negative developments, the institution said. An
updated forecast by the central bank reconfirms the prospects of an increase of
the annual inflation rate in the first months of this year, following the
increase of existing indirect taxes and the introduction of new ones, and of a
subsequent downward trend, at a slower pace than in 2023 and than originally
expected.

CYBERSECURITY On Tuesday 4 more hospitals in
Bucharest and elsewhere in the country were added to the list of 21 public and
private healthcare units affected since last weekend by a large-scale cyber
security incident, the National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC) announced. A crypto
currency ransom demand has been received, amounting to approx. EUR 157,000, but
the attackers only provided an email address, without disclosing the name of
the group claiming the attack. Both the DNSC and other cyber security
authorities involved urge the victims not to contact the perpetrators and not
to pay the ransom. The healthcare minister, Alexandru Rafila, has told Radio
Romania that some of the hospitals have managed to fix the problems, and the
authorities will come up with a new technical standard designed to prevent such
actions. Other public institutions in Romania have been targeted by cyber-attacks
in the past.

FARMERS On
Tuesday the European Commission officially endorsed a regulation which grants a
partial exemption for farmers from the rule binding them to keep 4% of their
arable land fallow. In exchange, they are required to grow nitrogen fixing
crops such as lentils or peas. The measure comes after large-scale farmer
protests across the EU, including in Romania. Member States who wish to apply
the derogation at national level need to notify the Commission within 15 days
of entry into force of the Regulation so that farmers can be informed as soon
as possible.

WRD World Radio Day was celebrated on Tuesday, and this year’s theme
was A century of information, entertainment and education. To mark this
celebration, Radio Romania’s stations broadcast interviews with journalists,
media experts, teachers, public figures and listeners, and their programmes
featured debates on the future of radio and broadcasts from the European
Broadcasting Union. The UNESCO declaration on World Radio Day, entitled Radio,
the Trusted Guide in a Changing World, can be found on the websites of all
Radio Romania’s stations.

WRESTLING The
Romanian athlete Denis Florin Mihai won the bronze in the Greco-Roman style 55
kilo category of the European Wrestling Championship in Bucharest on Tuesday, after
defeating Georgia’s Nugzari Tsurtsumia. Mihai ranks 4th in the world
standings and was the bronze winner in last year’s European Championships. Romania
takes part in the event in Bucharest with 30 athletes, 10 in each style.

POLO Romania’s men’s water polo team will play for the 9th
place at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, after defeating China 9-7 on Tuesday. In
the match for the 9th and 10th places, scheduled on
February 15, Romania takes on the USA. Romania finished 8th last
month in the European Championships held in Croatia, and the team’s best performance
to date at a World Championship is a 5th place in 1975. (AMP)