20 July 2017, UPDATE

Romanian PM Mihai Tudose travels to the Republic of Moldova./ Romania finalises bid to host the European Medicines Agency post-Brexit.

Newsroom, 20.07.2017, 19:41

Visit.
Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose on Friday travels to the neighbouring
Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet state with a majority Romanian-speaking population.
High on his agenda are talks with his Moldovan counterpart Pavel Filip and
Parliament speaker Adrian Candu on stepping up bilateral cooperation as well as
Bucharest’s support for the European progress of the Republic of Moldova. The
Romanian Prime Minister’s agenda does not include talks with Igor Dodon, the
Socialist pro-Russian president of the republic. This is Tudose’s second visit
abroad since taking office at the end of June. He first travelled to Brussels
last week, where he told EU officials that Romania has the huge task of
ensuring Moldova’s pro-European course.

European Medicines Agency. The Romanian government on Thursday finalised its bid
for hosting the headquarters of the European Medicines Agency, which is
currently based in London but which will be relocated after Brexit. The
authorities say this is a big opportunity for Romania, and if, successful, the
move would boost the country’s role and visibility in the European Union. The
government has also announced that the healthcare minister Florian Bodog, the
minister delegate for European Affairs Victor Negrescu and the president of the
National Medicines and Medical Equipment Agency Nicolae Fotin will travel to
London on Monday. The European Medicines Agency is a decentralised body of the
European Union whose main responsibility is the protection of public health through
the evaluation and supervision of medicines.

Budget deficit. Romania reported a budget deficit of 3.2%
of the GDP in the first quarter of 2017, the second highest in the EU and above
the 3% target set by the government in Bucharest, according to Eurostat. Out of
20 the EU states to provide data, only France has a higher budget deficit, with
3.3%. If the budget deficit exceeds 3% in a given member state, the EU can
launch the excessive deficit procedure. In the new governing programme of the
ruling coalition in Romania, it is specified that all the measures envisaged by
the executive will be taken in keeping with the criteria of the Maastricht Treaty,
which provides for a budget deficit below 3% of the GDP and a public debt lower
than 60%.

Business.
The number of new companies with foreign capital set up in Romania rose in the
first quarter of the year by 9.34% as compared with the same period last year,
to reach 2,938. Their number went up by 13% in June this year compared with
June last year, to 532. 2016 saw the lowest number of new foreign capital
companies in the last 18 years. The second best year after 1991 was 2007, when
15,000 new such companies were created. The worst year was 1995, when only
3,400 new foreign capital companies were created.

Brexit. EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on
Thursday that there was still a fundamental disagreement in the talks with the
UK. The main problems are the rights of the EU citizens living in the UK and
those of the British citizens in the EU, the financial details involved by
Brexit and the Irish border. Barnier made these statements at a joint press
conference with the UK Brexit secretary David Davis at the end of the second
round of talks. The next meeting is scheduled for the end of August.