June 22, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 22.06.2023, 20:13

TALKS Prices in the main food products in Romania could go down in
the following period, the country’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has announced
after the Executive talks on Thursday. Ciolacu says he has received answers
from the main supermarket chains on the scheme to cutting down on the markup in
the main food prices. The list includes staples such as bread, dairy, meat,
eggs, flour, hominy, oil, vegetables and fruits. The Romanian government will
continue to hold talks with the producers and suppliers of food products on the
aforementioned scheme of curbing the markup. The Romanian ministers have also
tackled another support scheme for the local producers of building materials so
that they may produce good materials at competitive prices, which would result
in lower imports. Roughly 70% of the materials used at present are imported and
Bucharest wants to curb these imports. The support scheme’s budget this year
could stay around 150 million euros, but the decision is with the Finance
Ministry.

VISIT Economic cooperation and handling the crises caused
by Russia’s war in Ukraine were the main topics on the agenda of the talks held
in Chişinău on Wednesday by the PM of Romania, Marcel Ciolacu, and of Moldova,
Dorin Recean. The latter thanked Bucharest for the support given to Moldova in
its EU accession efforts, and mentioned that bilateral relations are
consolidated through the construction of roads, bridges and energy networks.
During his visit to Chișinău, Marcel Ciolacu was accompanied by the Senate
speaker Nicolae Ciucă.

GAS The
manager of OMV Petrom, Christina Verchere, Thursday said that in 2027 the first
amounts of natural gas would be extracted through the Neptun Deep project,
turning Romania into the largest natural gas producer in the EU. The statements
were made at the government’s headquarters in Bucharest, where OMV Petrom and
Romgaz made an announcement concerning the development of Neptun Deep, the
largest natural gas project in the Romanian part of the Black Sea. Spanning 2
decades, the project is expected to generate a gas output 30 times higher than
the annual demand, which covers 4.3 million households. The estimated revenues
to the Romanian state will be around 20 billion Euros. Neptun Deep is a major
step for our 2030 strategy, aimed at supporting Romania’s and the region’s
energy transition, the OMV Petrom executive added.

INVESTMENT
The European Investment Bank Thursday announced new funding for Romania. The
total 675 million euros will go into transport, urban development and small
enterprises. 600 million euros will be earmarked for the transport sector, to
add to the EU recovery and resilience funding. The EIB Group and Romania mark
30 years of partnership, with over 17 billion euros granted by the bank in more
than 170 financing projects since the start of its operations in the country.
Given the progress of Romania’s economy over the past 30 years, I am proud that
the EIB Group was able to help, providing financing for better schools,
hospitals, public infrastructure, universities and transport, and supporting
climate action and small enterprises, said the EIB vice-president, Lilyana
Pavlova, in an event in Bucharest. In turn, Marjut Falkstedt, chief executive
of the European Investment Fund, emphasised that so far the EIF provided
financial support to more than 56,000 Romanian enterprises.

(bill&AMP)