March 12, 2019

Bucharest hosts informal meeting of the General Affairs Council (GAC)

Newsroom, 12.03.2019, 13:57

GAC Bucharest is hosting today an informal meeting of the General Affairs Council (GAC), organised by the Romanian presidency of the Council of the EU. Taking part are the EU ministers for European affairs, the first vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and the European Commissioner for Budget, Gunther Oettinger. The informal meeting will include talks on the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework and on the future of the EU, with an emphasis on the priorities that should guide the activity of the European bloc in the coming 5 years, ahead of Unions new strategic agenda. As for the financial framework, the goal of the Romanian presidency of the Council of the EU is to carry on talks at a dynamic pace, in order to ensure that a political agreement on this topic is reached this autumn.

ECOFIN The Romanian Finance Minister, Eugen Teodorovici, is chairing today the 3rd meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) in Brussels. The agenda includes topics like the Directive on alcohol excises, one on the general regime of excise duties, and the taxation of digital services. On Monday the Romanian official took part in an enlarged Eurogrup meeting and chaired the high-level talks on Macroeconomic Dialogue. According to the ECOFIN home page, the main topics were an information by the European Commission on the main findings of the 2nd enhanced surveillance mission to Greece, a thematic discussion on economic growth and employment, the housing markets and Latvias updated draft budget plan.

BUDGET The 2019 state budget bill, sent by President Klaus Iohannis back to Parliament, might be subject to a new vote on Wednesday, in a joint meeting of the 2 chambers of Parliament. Meanwhile, Klaus Iohannis has signed into law the social security budget bill, so that pensioners may not be affected by what he called the incompetence of the Social Democratic Party. According to the President, the main ruling party in Romania is the only one to blame for the fact that the country does not have a state budget law yet, because the Government was supposed to send the bill to Parliament in November 2018, instead of 3 months later.

PLANE CRASH The President of Romania Klaus Iohannis has today sent a condolence message to his Ethiopian counterpart, Sahle-Work Zewde, following the tragic plane crash of March 10. Also, given that over 20 UN staff died in the disaster, the Romanian official also addressed a condolence message to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres. The UN flag was flown at half-mast in New York today, and the Security Council personnel in the city, as well as at the Geneva headquarters, observed a minutes silence. A Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines and heading for Nairobi (Kenya) from Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) went down on Sunday, killing all the 157 people from 30 countries who were on board. This was a new blow for Boeing, after a similar accident in October 2018, off the Indonesian coast, involving the same aircraft model. The planes were new and both crashed just minutes into the flight.

AFRICA Deputy PM Ana Birchall was on a working visit to African countries between March 4 and 11, to further the Governments efforts to revitalise relations with sub-Saharan African countries. On March 11, the Romanian official represented the presidency of the Council of the EU at the EU – Angola ministerial meeting held in Luanda. Between March 7 and 9, Ana Birchall made a working visit to Namibia, to promote bilateral relations and inaugurate the Romanian honorary consulate in Windhoek. On March 4-6 Ana Birchall was in South Africa, to promote Romanias candidacy to a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

INTERNET Romania ranked 5th in the world in 2018, in terms of internet connection speed, after Singapore, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, but apart from benefits this also entails cyber-security risks. The statement was made on Tuesday by the former deputy director of the National Cyberint Centre in the Romanian Intelligence Service, Gabriel Mazilu, in a specialised forum. He mentioned that 2019 is an important year for Romania in the field of cyber-security, with the endorsement of Law 362/2018, transposing the EUs NIS (Networking Information Security) Directive. According to a survey made in 9 countries, including Romania, and released in mid-February, 40% of citizens are worried about a cyber-attack on the country. The highest concern level was reported in Spain, 47%, and Italy (39%).

BREXIT The British PM Theresa May has asked for Parliament support for the Brexit agreement in a vote scheduled for today. On Monday in Strasbourg she announced a last-minute compromise with the head of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, designed to assure the British MPs that the UK will not remain tied to the single market indefinitely. This is the second vote on the Brexit deal in the British Parliament, and president Juncker warned that there will not be a third. Britain is set to leave the European Union on March 29.

TENNIS The Romanian Simona Halep, number 2 in the world, is playing today against the Czech Marketa Vondrousova (61 WTA) in the round of last 16 of the Indian Wells tournament (USA). If she wins and in case the Japanese Naomi Osaka (1 WTA) stumbles, Simona could regain world tennis leadership. The Romanian player won the Indian Wells in 2015. In the mens doubles, Horia Tecău of Romania and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands qualified into the quarter-finals after defeating Henri Kontinen (Finland) / John Peers (Australia), 6-3, 7-6. In the next round, Tecău and Rojer will take on Novak Djokovic (Serbia) and Fabio Fognini (Italy).

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)