March 11, 2023

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 11.03.2023, 14:00

SCHENGEN – Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, is next week paying a
visit to Bulgaria for Schengen talks with his counterpart Rumen Radev. On
numerous occasions, Klaus Iohannis gave assurances Romania is neither a source
of migration nor a transit country. Meanwhile Bulgaria is struggling to secure
its Turkish border in cooperation with European authorities and Ankara.
Bulgaria’s Interior Minister, Ivan Demergiev, explained that the European
Council refused the idea of building a protection wall, although it agreed to
provide drones and radars and increase the presence of FRONTEX. We recall that
the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting of December 8, 2022 denied
Schengen accession to Romania due to opposition from Austria and the
Netherlands. Austria voted against whereas the Netherlands accepted Romania
joins without Bulgaria, despite the two countries having submitted a joint bid.
At present both countries have complied with Schengen accession criteria.

INVESTMENT – Net investment in Romanian economy stood at over €30 billion in
2022, up by 8.5% compared to the previous year, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă
has said. The Romanian official says this proves the positive impact of
measures taken by the government. Investments in development will preserve jobs
and generate new ones and will increase revenues in the long-term, Nicolae
Ciucă wrote on Facebook. According to recent data published by the National
Statistics Institute, the GDP went up by 4.8%, foreign direct investment stood
at €11.3 billion, our country had an EU fund absorption rate of 73% and exports
totalled €85 billion. On the other hand, government debt dropped from 48.3% in
November 2022 and 48.9% in 2021 to 47.2% in December 2022, the Finance Ministry
reports. Public investment spending is set at 7.2% of the GDP in 2023.

MOLDOVA – The Biden administration will
provide $300 million to the Republic of Moldova in energy assistance and share
intelligence with this country, which Russia is trying to destabilize, the
White House has announced. National security spokesman John Kirby told the
media that, although it has not noticed any immediate threat to the Republic of
Moldova, the USA believes Russia is trying to weaken this small country, to
orchestrate an insurrection and install a pro-Moscow government. Washington
trusts democratic and economic institutions in Chișinău and their capacity to
respond to these threats, the US official went on to say. We will continue to
provide assistance to this country, John Kirby added. Protests against the Moldovan
government and president, organized by the pro-Russian Shor Party, have been
held repeatedly in the Moldovan capital in the last months.

EU-USA RELATIONS – The United States and the European Commission have agreed to
eliminate negative competitiveness from the process of greening economies.
After talks held in Washington, US president Joe Biden and European Commission
president Ursula von der Leyen announced the start of negotiations with respect
to an overarching US plan to subsidize the national car industry, which has
produced concerns in a number of the USA’s European partners. The $370 billion
plan for climate action spending will provide credits to American consumers to
buy new or second-hand electric vehicles. The law restricts the awarding of credits
to vehicles built in North America only and provides strict rules with respect
to essential minerals used in the building of vehicle batteries. According to
Radio Romania’s correspondent, European officials were very vocal in their
criticism, saying the law reportedly puts EU businesses at a disadvantage. The
two leaders also discussed plans to keep exerting economic pressure on Russia
in the context of its war in Ukraine. The Biden administration has warned its
allies that Beijing might soon deliver weapons to Moscow. The US intelligence
says Beijing will seek to consolidate its ties with Moscow in order to provoke
the United States, despite the international community having condemned the
Russian invasion of Ukraine.

ICR – Bucharest has greenlit the
creation of a Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) branch in Tokyo. Government
spokesman Dan Cărbunaru pointed out no additional vacancies have been approved
for other Institutes abroad. The opening of the ICR branch in Tokyo capitalizes
on the Strategic Partnership freshly singed between Romania and Japan and will
boost the visibility of Romania in this country and step up cultural and
scientific relations by promoting information pertaining to Romania’s cultural
and academic life, the Government writes. Right now, the only ICR branch in
Southeastern Asia is in Beijing, China, opened in 2015. (VP)