May 11, 2019 UPDATE

Klaus Iohannis to participate in meeting of Eastern Partnership countries, Fitch affirms ratings for Romanias long term debts in hard and local currencies at BBB minus

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Newsroom, 11.05.2019, 19:29

Eastern Partnership — The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Monday will participate in Brussels in a meeting of the representatives of the Eastern Partnership countries, which marks 10 years since the setting up of this initiative. According to the presidential administration, the Romanian president will highlight the fact that the partnership contributed to the strengthening of the economies and societies of the eastern countries, and also to an enlarged stability of the EU borders. President Iohannis will also underline that the EU expects a permanent political commitment from the partner countries in terms of the observance of commitments made in their relation with the EU. The Eastern Partnership is an initiative which created a common area of democracy, prosperity, stability and close cooperation among the EU member states and partners states such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The meeting will also be attended by other high-ranking EU officials.

Fitch — The Fitch international rating agency affirms ratings for Romania’s long term debts in hard and local currencies at BBB minus, with stable outlook for both, but warns that the budget deficit might rise to 3.4% of the GDP in 2019, shows a Fitch communiqué. Romania’s country ceiling has been affirmed at BBB plus, while the short-term local and hard-currency IDR (Issuer Default Rating) was affirmed at F3. In another move, the Fitch analysts draw attention that the budget and current account deficits, the foreign debt level over the average value reported in the states included in the same category of investments and the pro-cyclical fiscal policy are risks threatening Romania’s macroeconomic stability.

CCR — Romania’s Constitutional Court will discuss on May 28 the notification made Friday by the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in relation to the recent modifications brought to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes and to the anti-corruption law. President Iohannis claims that in regard to the Criminal Code and the anti-corruption law the parliament also changed some provisions that were not related to the re-examination he had requested. As to the modification of the Criminal Procedure Code, the president says they failed to harmonize the texts previously criticized by the Constitutional Court. The opposition Liberals also submitted a notification on the same issue, which will be debated on May 22. The modifications adopted by Parliament and forwarded to the president for promulgation on May 2, reduce the statute of limitations for criminal liability, introduce a one-year deadline for denouncing cases of bribe taking and influence peddling, decriminalize dereliction of duty and diminish by half punishments for embezzlement and abuse of office.

Exercise – Exercise European Spartan 2019 will take place between May 13th to 24th at the 90th Airlift Base in Otopeni, in the context of Romania’s holding the rotating 6-month presidency of the Council of the EU. According to a Defense Ministry communiqué, this military exercise is part of a series of activities planned and organized by the European Defense Agency (EDA) and the Romanian Air Forces, as part of the EATF (European Air Transport Fleet) program. It is designed as a multinational training program in the field of air transportation. Participating in the exercise, alongside Romania are: Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, and Slovakia and observers from other states owning Spartan aircraft, from Europe and also from the US and Australia. (translation by L. Simion)