The European Commission decided on Friday to open an infringement procedure by sending a letter of formal notice to Romania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Lithuania and Portugal for failing to communicate to the Community Executive the measures for the full transposition of EU Directive 2022/542 regarding value added tax rates. EU member states had to communicate the full transposition of the Directive into national law by 31 December 2024, the EC press release also said. The directive allows for a wider use of reduced rates, including zero rates for essential products such as food, pharmaceuticals or those used for medical purposes. “Member States may exempt supplies of goods and services carried out within their territory by taxable persons who are established in that territory and whose annual turnover at Member State level, relating to those supplies of goods and/or services, does not exceed the threshold set by those Member States for the application of this exemption. That threshold may not exceed EUR 85,000 or the equivalent in national currency. Member States may set different thresholds for different economic sectors, based on objective criteria. However, none of these thresholds may exceed the threshold of EUR 85,000 or the equivalent in national currency,” according to the directive. The European Commission has therefore decided to send a letter of formal notice to the eight EU Member States to complete the transposition and notify their measures to the Community Executive. The mentioned States now have two months to respond to the EC’s requests. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the European Commission could decide to issue a reasoned opinion.
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 […]
