March 13, 2024

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 13.03.2024, 19:52

MEETING – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, received, on Wednesday, in Bucharest, the Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Mathias Cormann. Iohannis reconfirmed the political commitment to Romania’s accession to the OECD. He welcomed the launch of the second Economic Study of Romania and appreciated “the significant contribution that the OECD analysis has from the perspective of reform needs and the country’s objectives regarding sustainable economic growth”. The current priorities and main challenges were addressed in relation to ensuring macroeconomic stability, fiscal-budgetary consolidation and creating a favorable climate for investments and economic growth in Romania. In turn, Mathias Cormann congratulated Romania on the progress achieved so far on the path to joining the OECD, adding that that the country is among the most active candidate states.

INFLATION – In Romania, the annual rate of inflation dropped in February to 7.23%, from 7.41% in January, as food products rose in price by 4.48%, non-food products by 7. 82%, and services by 11%, according to the data of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), published on Wednesday. The National Bank of Romania revised downwards, to 4.7%, the inflation forecast for the end of this year, from 4.8% in November, and estimates that it will reach 3.5% at the end of 2025, according to the data presented in February. The forecast trajectory was revised downward during 2024, in the context of the indicator’s more favorable evolutions in the recent period, especially in the food segment.

PROTEST – Taxi drivers protested, on Wednesday, in the center of Bucharest with over 4,000 cars, demanding equal rights with those of alternative transport companies. They raised numerous alarm signals regarding the unfair competition in this highly deregulated field of activity, resulting from a defective and parallel legislation regarding a so-called ‘alternative transport of people’. The Ministry of Transport has published the draft emergency ordinance with changes in the legislation regulating alternative transport services, changes requested by taxi drivers’ representatives.

LAW – MEPs adopted, on Wednesday, in Strasbourg, the Law on artificial intelligence. European officials started drafting the law from the question of whether we are sufficiently prepared, as individuals and as a society, in the face of increasingly frequent interaction with artificial intelligence, and the answer was no. The MEPs proposed a document that regulates this market, because the EU cannot rely only on the companies working in the field and on their self-regulation. On the other hand, the EC established the framework of the negotiations with the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, which defines the dialogue in the coming years in order to integrate the two countries into the Union. At the same time, the President of the Commission announced, in the plenary session of the European Parliament, that she recommends the start of accession negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina. Both issues will be on the agenda of next week’s European summit.

NATO – Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, has formally announced his intention to run for the position of NATO Secretary General. His intention is based upon a profound understanding of the challenges the Alliance is currently facing as well as on Romania’s activity within NATO. The Romanian president’s candidacy comes in the last year of his second term in office as head of state, given that the incumbent NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, is going to step down from this position he has occupied since 2014.

(EE)