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.
The number of people in Romania at risk of poverty stood at 3.59 million people in 2024, 375,000 fewer than in 2023, representing a 9.4% decrease, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics, or INS. Despite the improvement, nearly one in five Romanians was affected by poverty last year. According to INS, 19% […]
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Cluj-Napoca carried out multiple searches on Tuesday, July 1, at the Sibiu International Airport and the Sibiu County Council as part of an investigation into suspected fraud involving a EUR 54 million EU-funded infrastructure project. A total of 24 locations were searched across Bucharest, Brașov, and Sibiu county, […]
A Romanian taxi driver who scammed 90-year-old Nigerian Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka was detained by police on Sunday, June 29, according to media reports. On Friday, June 27, the venerable Nigerian arrived at Bucharest's Otopeni Airport. He got into a taxi and asked to be taken to a hotel downtown. At the destination, the […]
Costin Șerban, a Romanian entrepreneur, is digitalizing the construction sector in the United Kingdom with an ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution developed over 12 years and an investment of GBP 1.6 million (EUR 1.86 million). Șerban’s cloud-based ERP platform is called Abilo, was developed by the Romanian IT company Obi Systems, and is dedicated to […]
Border checks between Bulgaria and Romania have officially been lifted on July 1, as part of the implementation of the Schengen Agreement. The lifting marks the end of the transitional period of heightened control at the internal border, which had remained in place for six months following their accession to the Schengen area by land […]
Remus Vulpescu became CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) on Tuesday, July 1, taking over from Adrian Tănase as the stock exchange grapples with a market dominated by government bonds. Vulpescu, 53, is a graduate in political and legal sciences from the University of Bucharest and holder of an EMBA obtained in 2017. He […]
