February 3, 2025 UPDATE 2

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Newsroom, 03.02.2025, 20:00

Defense – Europe must assume greater responsibility for its own defense in order to strengthen our strategic resilience, said President Klaus Iohannis, present, on Monday, in Brussels, at the informal meeting of EU leaders on defense issues. The discussions focused on military capabilities and the European defense industry. President Iohannis evoked, in this sense, the need for adequate financing seen not only as the allocation of more money, but also as the effective use of the already existing tools. Regarding defense, Romania’s president emphasized the need for complementarity between the European Union and NATO.

EU funds – Attracting European funds for financing social projects for the benefit of the Romanian citizens, for protecting the rights and increasing the skills of Romanian workers are the topics tackled during Monday’s meeting between Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and Roxana Mînzatu, the executive vice-president of the European Commission, responsible for social rights, skills, quality jobs and training. Visiting Bucharest on Monday and Tuesday, in her first official visit in this capacity, Roxana Mînzatu emphasized the openness to support the Romanian administration in attracting as many European funds as possible. During the talks, the two officials also referred to the debate taking place at the European level regarding the Consolidation of EU emergency preparedness. In this context, the head of the Romanian government mentioned that Bucharest must be part of this debate, considering the contribution that Romanian specialists have in managing such situations, like fires and floods. On Tuesday, Roxana Mînzatu will meet with president Klaus Iohannis and will have talks with the speakers of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies, Ilie Bolojan, and Ciprian Şerban respectively.

Meeting – The Romanian Interior Minister, Cătălin Predoiu, had an official meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart, Daniel Mitov, on the occasion of the official launching ceremony of the joint patrols at the Bulgarian-Turkish border together with the counterparts from Bulgaria, Hungary and representatives of the management of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior. According to an Interior Ministry press release, published on Monday, they tackled the issue of the bilateral commitment to work together in addressing the challenges of cross-border crime, for the protection of the external borders of the EU and of the common one. The most important aspects of the Romanian-Bulgarian cooperation in the field of Internal Affairs were reviewed, with an emphasis on the latest developments recorded after the lifting of internal border controls on January 1, 2025. Cătălin Predoiu was decorated by the Bulgarian minister with the Badge of Honor “Value and Merit” of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, for special merits in the development and consolidation of cooperation in the field of security and internal affairs. He is the first Romanian Interior Minister to receive this distinction.

Budget – Romania’s 2025 budget bill will enter Parliament’s debate as of Tuesday, and the final vote is expected to take place by the end of the week. The vote is predictable as the parliamentarians of the ruling coalition (PSD-PNL-UDMR) have the majority. However, the document met with much criticism from the opposition parties, which submitted over 1,000 amendments. Adopted by the government at the end of last week, Romania’s budget bill for 2025 is based on an economic growth of 2.5%, an average inflation rate of 4.4% and a deficit of 7% of the GDP. According to the Finance Minister, Tanczos Barna, the budget focuses on investments, with record allocations of 150 billion lei (about 30 billion Euros).

IMF – An International Monetary Fund mission is paying a visit to Bucharest, between February 3-7. The IMF team will meet with representatives of the new Romanian Government and the National Bank of Romania to analyze recent financial and economic developments and update macroeconomic perspectives. Currently, Romania does not have a financing agreement with the International Monetary Fund, but the financial institution annually evaluates the evolution of the Romanian economy, based on consultations on Article IV, which represents a mandatory surveillance exercise for all member states. The purpose of the consultations is to examine the financial and economic situation at the national level and formulate some general recommendations regarding monetary policies, financial and economic policies to be followed so as to ensure stability and a positive evolution of the economy.

Investigation – The prosecutors from the Directorate for Fighting Organized Crime (DIICOT) carried out, on Monday, dozens of searches in Romania and Monaco, in a case involving fraud with particularly serious consequences, embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion, related to what the press called the Nordis real estate business. The investigations targeted a number of about 70 suspects, natural and legal persons. Among the people interviewed are Laura Vicol, former head of the Legal Commission in the Chamber of Deputies, and Ioana Băsescu, the daughter of the former president of Romania, Traian Băsescu, who was called at the DIICOT headquarters to give explanations regarding her involvement as a notary in the Nordis business. Starting in 2018, three of the suspects allegedly initiated and set up an organized criminal group, which conceived and implemented a complex criminal mechanism, consisting, mainly, in the promotion and development of real estate projects under the cover of several commercial companies, followed by collecting money from clients, misleading buyers during the execution of pre-contracts and sale-purchase contracts. The leaders of the organized criminal group are said to have collected over 957,000,000 lei (over 195 million Euros) from customers as an advance payment within the framework of bilateral sale-purchase promises, respectively sales-purchase agreements. (LS)