June 21, 2017 UPDATE
The Romanian Parliament adopts the no-confidence motion tabled by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania against the government led by Sorin Grindeanu/ The Romanian national currency plunges to a new record low
Bogdan Matei, 21.06.2017, 18:47
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION – The Romanian Parliament on Wednesday adopted the no confidence motion tabled by the ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania against its own government, led by PM Sorin Grindeanu. 241 MPs endorsed the motion, exceeding the minimum number of required votes, that is 233. The other parliamentary parties, the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and the Peoples Movement Party refrained from voting, saying the issue was an internal problem of the coalition. The motion was tabled after the prime minister refused to step down and the coalition parties withdrew their political support. Grindeanu dismissed as ungrounded the conclusions of a report drafted by PSD and assessing the activity of the cabinet six months after it took office, a report which signalled delays in implementing the governing program. President Klaus Iohannis will hold talks with the parliamentary parties on Monday on the formation of a new government, his spokesperson has announced.
THE NATIONAL CURRENCY– The Romanian national currency, the leu, on Wednesday plunged to a new record low, against the backdrop of the current political crisis. The National Bank of Romania announced one Euro stands at 4.59 lei, plunging to a record low since August 2012, when the leu sold for 4.64 lei, against the backdrop of another political crisis, generated by the suspension of the then president, Traian Basescu.
ECONOMIC
POLICY- The IMF Resident Representative for Romania and Bulgaria,
Alejandro Hajdenberg recommends to the Romanian authorities to show fiscal
prudence after having recently operated many tax cuts and having increased
salaries and pensions. He says a cautious salary policy is very important to
protect the competitiveness of the Romanian private sector on foreign markets.
The fight against corruption should also be continued, Hajdenberg added.
FARMING – Business in the farming sector has doubled in the last seven years, to reach some 3,5 billion euros in 2015, reads a recent KeysFin survey. Over 7,000 enterprises with more than 40,000 employees are currently operating in the field, a number which went up by nearly 30% as compared to 2009. The KeysFin analysis also shows that, according to the latest data provided by the European Commission at the end of May, Romania has become the main cereal exporter at EU level. On the other hand, National Bank Deputy Governor Liviu Voinea said Romania has been making constant progress in bridging the development gaps separating it from other developed states.
SUMMER EUROPEAN COUNCIL – President Klaus Iohannis will attend the proceedings of the Summer European Council in Brussels, on Thursday and Friday. On the sidelines of the summit, Iohannis will have bilateral talks with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron. The Romanian President flies to Brussels directly from Germany, where he paid a visit during which he met on Monday with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the federal chancellor, Angela Merkel. We recall that in early June, the Romanian presidents foreign policy agenda included a 5-day working visit to the US, during which he had a meeting with US President, Donald Trump, at the White House.
2017 SELECTUSA INVESTMENT SUMMIT- 23 Romanian delegates representing 17 companies from the mining, ICT, engineering and distilling industries attended the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington, over June 18 and 20. The Summit is the highest profile event to connect global companies and U.S. economic development organizations to facilitate business investment in the United States. This year’s Romanian delegation was the largest in history to the SelectUSA Summit, more specifically a 600% increase over last year’s. Delegates have each had numerous matchmaking meetings with US Companies and Economic Development Organizations. “We are thrilled to welcome 23 Investors to the Summit and to the United States, said U.S. Ambassador to Romania Hans Klemm, who underlined that “the Summit brings business opportunities and resources from across the United States together in a single place, enabling participants to complete weeks of work in fewer than three days. Attending the event was also the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, who said “this is an exciting time for global companies to explore the U.S. market and find partners that can help them create a footprint, expand operations, and achieve growth. There is no better place to make those connections than this Summit.
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT – The Constitutional Court of Romania ruled that any persons with an expired prison sentence, who have been pardoned or rehabilitated or whove been sentenced for something that is no longer considered a crime, can be members of the Government. Court judges claim the law is inconsistent in this respect, as someone who is criminally prosecuted cannot be part of the Government, although he can be president or a member of Parliament. The Court thus responded to a notification filed by the Ombudsmans Office earlier this year. The legislation in force did not allow Social-Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea to be Prime Minister, after his party won the December 2016 legislative elections. Dragnea got a suspended sentence for election fraud attempt in the 2012 referendum to impeach the then president, Traian Basescu.
FINANCING – Over 400 million euros will be made available for funding Romanian SMEs after the European Investment Bank signed funding protocols with six local banks. Based on these agreements, banks can give loans both for starting SMEs as well as for developing those already on the market. The collaboration agreement between the EIB, the European Commission and the Government of Romania was signed in October last year.
GAC – State Secretary with the Romanian Foreign Ministry Bogdan Manoiu on Tuesday attended the General Affairs Council meeting held in Luxembourg, focusing on preparing the European Council meeting of June 22-23. The Romanian official said security and defence measures to be adopted must be balanced, lead to more cohesion between Member States and ensure added value for the EUs security contribution and its complementarity with NATO measures in this field. At the same time, Secretary Manoiu reiterated Romanias interest to implement all measures aimed at strengthening the EUs external borders. Referring to migration, the Romanian official underscored the need to consolidate progress reported in cooperation with countries of origin and transit countries based on the Partnership Framework adopted in 2016. Bogdan Manoiu also expressed Romanias readiness to continue dialogue in order to identify a consensual solution in terms of reforming the Common European Asylum System.
ATTACK –Belgian prosecutors say the suicide bomber shot dead by the police on Tuesday evening in Central Station in Brussels was trying to detonate a gas and nail bomb he was carrying in a suitcase. The bomber was a Moroccan citizen, aged 36, whose home has been searched by the Belgian security forces. They found items showing the bomber might have been an ISIS supporter. In March 2016 Brussels was hit by a wave of suicide bomb attacks at the airport and the subway system, which killed 32 people. The attacks were claimed by the Islamic State terrorist organisation.
US-UKRAINE RELATIONS – US President Donald trump on Tuesday met in Washington with his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, on the very day the White House announced harsher sanctions against Moscow, whom they accuse of supporting pro-Russian rebel separatists in Eastern Ukraine. Russian immediately criticized the call and promised to retaliate. Broke out in 2014, the conflict in eastern Ukraine has so far killed over ten thousand people. The US and its European allies have called on Russia to observe the Minsk ceasefire agreements of 2015. The White House said that sanctions regarding the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has illegally occupied wouldnt be lifted unless Moscow withdraws its troops from the region.
