Romania will negotiate with the new European Commission a seven-year agreement to re-enter the 3% deficit target, prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Tuesday, claiming that our country is in a period of "accelerated" development and it is very important that investments continue."What I can tell you is, for example, that the World Bank gave us a loan to cover the deficit. I suppose that the World Bank saw the pace of Romania's development and did not consider it a risk for an investment in Romania," Ciolacu said, when asked what measures to reduce spending were discussed by the coalition on Monday in order to reduce the budget deficit.According to him, the government should be allowed to negotiate with the European Commission regarding the budget deficit."We have to decide, do you want to enter the logic in which, in two months, if you want, I stop any investment and we have a 3% deficit? I don't have a problem. With all the expenses that have increased in salaries and you know well that the expenses in salaries have increased last year in education and health, after a social crisis and after the biggest strike in the education system. (...) I repeat, I prefer you to ask me daily about the deficit and to continue the investments. I don't stop investments in Romania. (...) Let us negotiate with the Commission. These things are not publicly negotiated," Marcel Ciolacu pointed out, adding that other European states also have to manage the problem of excessive budget deficit.He also pointed out that in the discussions that took place in the coalition meeting on Monday it was agreed that the VAT will not be increased.The prime minister participated on Tuesday in the Business Forum organized at the Palace of Parliament, on the occasion of the meeting of the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation.
Participation in cultural education activities continues to be limited, with the main barriers being difficult access, insufficient knowledge, and cost, the recently released Cultural Consumption Barometer 2024 shows. The report showed that many Romanians still associate culture with entertainment rather than with personal development or furthering their knowledge. The need for relaxation dominates in cultural […]
Roughly 84% of Romanians say that the pace of the state’s digitalization is slow or very slow, according to an Edge Institute & AtlasIntel study presented at the Digital Governance Summit 2025, which took place on Tuesday, November 25, at the presidential palace in Bucharest. The survey aims to capture the way citizens relate to […]
Romania’s Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) issued a negative opinion on the new bill regarding magistrates’ pensions. The move is only the latest development concerning a heated issue that led to tensions between the executive and the judiciary branch. CSM’s opinion is consultative, and the government led by Ilie Bolojan can still take responsibility for […]
Romania took the presidency of the Central European Initiative (or CEI) on Wednesday, November 26, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE). The organization is a regional intergovernmental forum established in 1989, following the fall of the Berlin Wall. It gathers 17 Member States in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe […]
Trade between Romania and Poland continues to grow, with annual bilateral exchanges in goods now valued at more than EUR 12 billion, according to figures presented by the Polish-Romanian Bilateral Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PRBCC). The data was released during a reception in Bucharest marking Poland’s Independence Day and Romania’s National Day. Polish investments […]
As Romania moves closer to implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive, local employers are preparing for one of the most consequential shifts in workplace regulation in over a decade. The directive, set for transposition by June 2026, introduces strict new rules on salary disclosure, pay reporting, and equal-pay verification, aiming to close persistent gender gaps […]
