February 8, 2025 UPDATE
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 08.02.2025, 20:00
A roundup of local and international news.
SIE – The Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) has significantly contributed to meeting the national strategic objectives and honoring the commitments made by Romania within allied and European formats, President Klaus Iohannis said on Saturday, in his message on the 35th anniversary of SIE. According to the President, the information supplied by SIE on national security matters has been critical in making decisions for the Romanian state and in handling the increasingly complex security challenges, as part of the efforts to turn Romania into a resilient state, able to face diffuse and unpredictable challenges. Among others, Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine and its subversive hybrid actions in Romania and across Europe, the persistence of classic security risks, such as cyber, terrorism and hostile information activities, have continued to generate national and international security challenges and to shape the activity of the SIE, along with that of other institutions part of the National Security System, the President explained. He also said it is vital to strengthen inter-institutional cooperation and the one with external partners, in order to increase the Romanian state’s capacity to respond effectively to multiple security challenges, with an emphasis on hybrid threats.
IMF- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission in Bucharest concluded talks with representatives of the main institutions responsible for Romania’s monetary and fiscal policies. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu told the IMF experts that the Romanian Government is committed to comply with the budget deficit of 7% of the Gross Domestic Product and to implement the reforms assumed under the Recovery and Resilience Plan. Last fall, the IMF published its latest forecast on the Romanian economy, estimating a deficit at the same level as the one set by the government, 7%, for the end of 2025. The IMF estimates are more optimistic both in terms of economic growth, 3.3%, compared to only 2.5% expected by the authorities in Bucharest, and inflation, calculated at 3.6%, below the 4.4% target set by the government.
WAGES – Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Poland, from January 2015 to January 2025, had the highest average annual rate of increase in the minimum wage in the EU, Euronews reports. They reported increases between 10% and 14%, according to Eurostat data. On the other hand, the lowest average annual rate of increase in the minimum wage in the EU was in France (2.1%) and Malta (2.9%). 22 of the 27 EU member states have established a national minimum wage, the exceptions being Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland and Sweden. The monthly minimum wage varies significantly across EU member states. Thus, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France are the countries where the minimum wage exceeds 1,500 euros per month, while Croatia, Greece, Malta, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Hungary and Bulgaria have the lowest minimum wage, below 1,000 euros per month.
INVICTUS – A team of soldiers will represent Romania at this year’s Invictus Games Vancouver and Whistler 2025. The Invictus Games is an international sports competition that was first held in 2014 and aims to raise awareness about the gratitude we owe to the wounded soldiers. This year’s event will take place from February 8-16 in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada, and will bring together over 500 competitors from 23 nations around the world. The delegation that will accompany the Romanian team to Canada will be led by the Director of the Defence Staff, Major General Valentin Brînzei.
DISCONNECTION – More than three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have begun to disconnect from Russia’s electricity grid and join the EU’s grid. The two-day process began on Saturday morning, with residents told to charge their devices, stock up on food and water and prepare for severe weather, Reuters reports. A giant, specially built clock will count down the final seconds before the transition, at a landmark ceremony in the Lithuanian capital on Sunday, attended by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. The three Baltic nations will then officially disconnect from the grid that has connected them to Russia since the years after World War II.
TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Gabriela Ruse suceeded to reach the main singles draw of the WTA 1,000 tournament in Doha (Qatar) after defeating Australian Daria Saville 6-3, 6-4, on Saturday, in the final round of the qualifiers. Ruse (aged 27, 112 WTA), who in the first round defeated the American Taylor Townsend (28 years old, 81 WTA), with 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, also defeated Saville in 2022, in the first round at the US Open. Gabriela Ruse will be the only Romanian representative on the main draw of the competition in Qatar, held on February 9 to 15. In Cluj-Napoca (north-west Romania), Russian Anastasia Potapova and Italian Lucia Bronzetti qualified on Saturday for the final of the Transylvania Open (WTA 250). Potapova, the main favorite, defeated Belarusian Aleksandra Sasnovici, 6-3, 7-5 in the semifinal. In the other semifinal, Bronzetti took advantage of the withdrawal of Czech Katerina Siniakova.
