The Commission has decided to open infringement proceedings against Austria, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania and Italy for failing to effectively remove from their legal orders the intra-EU Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) to which they are contracting parties, so that they cease to produce any legal effects. It has been the Commission's long-standing position that BITs between EU Member States constitute a parallel treaty system overlapping and conflicting with Union law, thereby preventing its full application. Following the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Achmea (C-284/16), all Member States committed in 2019 to terminate their intra-EU BITs in a coordinated manner by means of either plurilateral agreementor expedient bilateral terminations. The Commission notes that Austria and Sweden did not sign the plurilateral agreement with other Member States and have not finalised the bilateral termination of their intra-EU BITs. Meanwhile, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania and Italy signed the plurilateral agreement in May 2020, but have not yet completed its ratification process, necessary to ensure legal certainty for investors and businesses. The Commission urges the above mentioned Member States to urgently take all necessary action to remove the intra-EU BITs from their legal order, bearing in mind their incompatibility with Union law. Without a satisfactory response from them within two months, the Commission may decide to address reasoned opinions. In addition, the Commission has sent a complementary reasoned opinion to Sweden for failing effectively to ensure that its Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with Romania ceases to produce legal effects. Although Sweden removed the BIT from its legal order formally and unambiguously via mutual agreement with Romania, it has failed to ensure the required degree of legal certainty for investors and businesses, as it did not eliminate in practice all legal effects that the BIT had produced since its incompatibility with Union law first arose. This has enabled arbitral tribunals to take their own view as to the validity of the BIT, so far upholding its applicability and accepting jurisdiction based on its provisions. The Commission urges Sweden to take all necessary actions to ensure that its BIT with Romania ceases to produce legal effects, bearing in mind the incompatibility of the BIT with Union law. Without a satisfactory response from Sweden within the next two months, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
"There is no question of a nuclear dome over Romania," presidential adviser and former foreign minister Cristian Diaconescu said, commenting on the scenarios circulated about France using its nuclear umbrella to protect a larger part of the continent against the Russian threat, according to
The average net wage in Romania rose 9.7% y/y to RON 5,328 (EUR 1,070) in January, marking the slowest annual real growth rate (+4.7% y/y) since May 2023. Wages are expected to lose momentum through 2025, after the 4.4% and 7.7% advance, in real terms, during 2023 and 2024. The government’s forecasting body expects a […]
Romania’s public debt increased by 22.9% y/y to RON 964.3 billion (EUR 193.9 billion) at the end of December, after it surged by EUR 36.2 billion during the year. The public debt leaped by RON 27.4 billion (EUR 5.5 billion) in December, although the Treasury has not issued any FX bond – the increase […]
International rating agency Moody's followed Fitch and S&P in changing Romania's outlook from stable to negative, based on concerns about the fiscal situation aggravated by the political turmoil. All three major agencies rate Romania's debt at the lowest category in the investment-grade area – Baa3 in the case of Moody's. The decision to change the […]
Thousands of Romanians gathered in cities across the country and in major European capitals on Saturday, March 15, in a show of support for Romania's place in the European Union. The Euro Manifest rally took place in Bucharest, Timișoara, Arad, Oradea, Iași, and in the diaspora, including Brussels, London, and Dublin. Organizers estimated that between […]
The 2025 edition of the year’s first major film fest in Europe (and one of the biggest worldwide), the Berlin International Film Festival, took place between 13 and 23 February. My notes come with a bit of delay, as I was also hit by the festival flu that got so many of us sniffling and […]
