June 8, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 08.06.2023, 20:20

STRIKE Trade unions in Romania’s education system have
planned another protest rally on Friday amid dissatisfaction with the
government’s response to their claims. In the meantime, the Executive on
Thursday endorsed a memorandum regarding the pay rises granted to the personnel
in the country’s education system under the new pay law. In this way the
Executive is guaranteeing this domain will be a top priority. Romania’s Liberal
Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciuca has given assurances the salary of a beginner
teacher will be based on the average medium salary, as the protesters requested.
The memorandum also refers to a holiday bonus according to the teachers’ salaries,
as well as to other bonuses. In another development, field minister Ligia Deca
has announced that applications for the Baccalaureate and the national
assessment exams for 8th graders will be extended until June 13 and
the competency tests from the Baccalaureate exam will take place over 14 – 23 June.

FUND The EU Modernization Fund made
available 2.4 billion Euros for 31 projects in seven beneficiary countries,
including Romania, in order to help them streamline their energy systems, cut
greenhouse gas emissions in energy, industry and transport as well as to
improve energy efficiency, the European Commission announced on Thursday. This has
been the highest sum made available so far and will give an impetus to Europe’s
ecological transition According to the European Commission, these investments
are helping the member states to reduce their dependency on fossil fuel from
Russia, meet their climate and energy objectives for 2030 and contribute to the
EU’s long-term commitment to achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Additional
investment has been made in Romania, 1.1 billion euros, the Czech Republic 1
billion euros as well as in countries like Bulgaria, Poland, Croatia, Latvia
and Lithuania. The sums made available on Thursday, have brought the total
payment from the aforementioned fund to roughly 7.5 billion euros, benefitting
10 eligible member countries.

GROWTH Romania reported an economic growth
rate of 2.3% in the first quarter of this year, compared to the similar period
of 2022, according to provisional data published today by the National
Institute of Statistics. Thus, the estimated Gross Domestic Product was over
312 billion lei (about 62 billion Euros). Among others, wholesale and retail
trade, motor vehicle and motorcycle repair, transport and storage, as well as
constructions contributed to the increase in the GDP. The World Bank estimates
that Romania’s Gross Domestic Product will register, this year, a growth of
2.6%. The IMF has revised significantly downward the estimates regarding the
growth of the Romanian economy in 2023, from 3.1 to 2.4%.

DEFENCE The Commander of the U.S. European
Command, General Christopher G. Cavoli, and the Romanian Chief of Defense
Staff, General Daniel Petrescu, are the hosts of the Central European Chiefs of
Defense Conference, on Thursday and Friday, in Bucharest. The chiefs of defense
from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and
Hungary are participating in the meeting. Nine military leaders of the US
National Guard are also present, the Romanian Defense Ministry reports. The
event includes topics on security challenges and aims to intensify military
cooperation relations to ensure stability in the region.

(bill&LS)