THE WEEK IN REVIEW

January 29- February 2, 2024

Bogdan Matei, 03.02.2024, 14:00

Deficit for the country

Romania ended the year 2023 with a budget deficit of 5.68% of the GDP, more than one percentage point above the figure considered when building the budget at the beginning of last year, which was 4.4% – the Finance Ministry announced on Wednesday. The good news is that the deficit of 5.68% in 2023 is still below that anticipated by the European Commission in its autumn forecast, 6.3%. The difference between expenses and revenues stood at roughly 90 billion lei, the equivalent of 18 billion Euros.

Romanian MPs at Work

After more than one-month holiday, the Romanian senators and deputies kicked off a new Parliament session on February 1st. Measures aimed at limiting gambling and keeping drug use at bay, as well as the bills needed to reach the milestones in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, so that Romania can submit payment requests to receive allocated European funds, are high on the agenda of the PSD-PNL ruling coalition. The opposition USR & AUR have pledged to stall any further tax hikes, and prevent the Socialists and Liberals from violating the Constitution, as the latter enjoy a comfortable majority in Parliament. The press in Bucharest is bracing up for a session fraught with heated debates in a year when Romania is going to have all types of elections, European Parliament, local, legislative and presidential.

Hackers for the Prime Minister

The Romanian government has amended through an emergency ordinance the cyber-security law, so that state institutions may be informed within 48 hours of any security breach in the IT infrastructures of Romanias state entities, enabling them to have a rapid response. The amendments came after the cyber-attacks against the websites of the National Directorate for Cyber-Security and the Chamber of Deputies. The Minister of Research and Digitization, Social-Democrat Bogdan Ivan, says that the cyber-attack on the Directorate failed, whereas 300 files of public documents have been stolen from the Chamber of Deputies, as well as classified data, such as copies of the IDs belonging to Romanian MPs. Among the stolen documents is a copy the ID of Romanias Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who will now to get another ID card.

Another Romanian politician gets a bribe

Anti-corruption prosecutors on Thursday carried out searches at the house of the president of Prahova County Council, (southern Romania), Liberal Iulian Dumitrescu, and members of his family. On a 60-day pretrial conditional release, the politician and several other persons are suspected of bribery and misrepresentation in official statements. Dumitrescu says he doesnt have anything to hide, and can produce any documents needed in the investigation. He has also announced his intention to step down from all the positions he holds in the party, so as not to affect the Liberals image. Dumitrescu was one of the four first vice-presidents of the National Liberal Party, part of the ruling coalition with the Social Democrats. He was also head of the partys county branch.

Money for Ukraine

The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, took part, in Brussels, in the extraordinary meeting of the European Council, which had as the main point on the agenda the obtaining of an agreement at the level of the Union regarding the main elements of the revision package of the multiannual financial framework related to the period 2021-2027. The most important decision adopted there by European leaders concerned the delivery of another 50 billion euros to Ukraine, which is invaded by Russian troops. The head of state strongly advocated that Ukraine, Romania’s neighbor, remain a top priority on the European Union’s agenda. The new injection of EU funds was decided a few days after even the main intelligence service in Kiev, the SBU, revealed that Ukrainian military officials and businessmen embezzled, six months after the start of the Russian invasion, 40 million dollars , intended for the purchase of armaments. On the eve of the summit, Iohannis participated in the tribute ceremony organized by the European Commission in memory of the French politician Jacques Delors, former president of the community executive between 1985 and 1995, who died at the end of last year, when he was almost a hundred years old.

Tents for Gaza

The Romanian government has approved the allocation of humanitarian aid worth 6 million lei (the equivalent of about 1.2 million euros), in the form of strictly necessary goods, for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army claims it wants to eliminate the Palestinian Hamas movement. The aid will consist of tents, beds, blankets, sleeping bags, and other products needed by the civilian population seriously affected by the war – stated the Bucharest Executive. Previously, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs conveyed that it took note with ‘maximum concern’ of the allegations regarding the alleged involvement of some staff members of the UN Agency for Refugees from Palestine in the Near East (UNRWA) in the terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, on October 7, 2023. According to the MFA, these accusations must be the subject of ‘immediate and thorough investigations’ by the UN.