April 28, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 28.04.2023, 19:56

EU — The European Union has decided to extend for another year the suspension of customs duties and quotas on imports from Ukraine, so as to support its economy during the war started by Russia. The announcement was made by Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the community bloc. We recall that the suspension of these taxes generated dissatisfaction among farmers in several countries, culminating with the prohibition, at the beginning of this month, of cereals imports from Ukraine by Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The European Commission has now proposed paying compensations to farmers in five countries bordering Ukraine, including Romania, and allowing these countries to ban the sale of certain Ukrainian grains on their domestic markets. But, the five countries must continue to allow the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products, so that they can be sold in other regions.

Congress — The representatives of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (part of the governing coalition) held a congress in Timisoara (west). The current leader of the party, the Deputy Prime Minister Kelemen Hunor, is running for a new presidential mandate. According to him, a strategic document will also be adopted during the congress that will show the priorities of Romania and of the Hungarian community for the coming years in the economic, social, political and rights-of-national-minorities fields. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania wants to remain in the government also after the change of the prime minister, scheduled for the end of May, said Kelemen Hunor, who received assurances in this regard. The leaders of National Liberal Party and of the Social Democratic Party (the main parties of the three-party coalition), the Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca and the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Marcel Ciolacu, respectively, also took the floor at the congress.

May Day – Over 400 festivals, concerts, trade fairs and sports competitions are scheduled to take place over the May Day long weekend. Over 70,000 people are expected to travel to the Black Sea coast on this occasion. Some 24,000 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters will be on duty across the country to prevent and combat crime, fluidize road traffic and reduce waiting times at border checkpoints as well as to ensure order and safety at various public events, the Interior Ministry reports. The Border Police has also taken measures to optimize customs procedures and reduce waiting times, with a focus on the crossing points on the Hungarian and Bulgarian borders.

Schengen — Romanias accession to Schengen, the European free travel area, could be debated at the end of September, when the first meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council is scheduled under the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Romanian Interior Minister Lucian Bode announced. He showed that, until the end of June, under the presidency of Sweden, the accession file of Romania and Bulgaria has no chance to be on the agenda of the JHA Council. “Spain stated, through the Interior Minister Marlaska, both in Bucharest and in Vienna, a few days ago, that it will put on the agenda of its presidency the file of Romania’s and Bulgaria’s Schengen accession. So (…) we put our hope in the Spanish presidency. The Spanish presidency will decide, depending on the discussions and the conclusions it will reach in its approach with Austria, whether this will happen in September or in October, November, December,” said minister Bode. In December 2022, Austria blocked Romanias Schengen candidacy, claiming that our country is part of the Balkan route of illegal migration. The accusation was rejected by the Romanian authorities and officially denied by the European institutions.

Budget — Romanias state budget registered a deficit of 1.42% of the gross domestic product, i.e. 22.75 billion lei, in the first three months of 2023, the Romanian Finance Ministry announced. The loss was mainly caused by the increase in the volume of investments by 56.5% compared to the same period of the previous year and the compensation of bills related to the consumption of electricity and natural gas for domestic and non-domestic customers in the amount of 2.5 billion lei. Other factors that contributed to the deficit were the higher volume of reimbursements of goods and services for medicines, the slowing down of the fees and taxes collection rate as well as the implementation of the second stage of the Support Program for Romania. Last year, the state budget registered, in the same period, a deficit of 15.7 billion lei.

Literacy – The degree of literacy for Romanian students between the ages of 6 and 14 is low, only 11% of them being in the “functional” area, shows the 2023 edition of the National Literacy Report. According to the document, made by the standardized test platform for students brio.ro, together with seven other non-profit organizations in the field of education, the results are similar to those of last year, without notable changes. “There are 42% functionally illiterate children, 47% minimally literate and only 11% are functional. The school system does nothing to help them, children enter school non-functional and after eight years the non-functional percentage drops by only 1.5%. Almost everything children learn in school is rote learning. Children are not able to interpret the texts they read and fail to make logical inferences about the texts, consequently they will be virtually unable to interact with any type of text,” the executive director of the brio.ro platform, Gabi Barctic said. Literacy skills reflect a persons ability to relate to a text. The competent reader understands and interprets the text even at a first careful reading, uses the information in it and interacts with it to achieve their goals. (LS)