The draft law on the state budget for 2025 and the draft law on state social insurance were approved on Wednesday evening by the joint plenary session of Parliament.For the draft law on the budget, there were 254 votes in favour and 192 votes against, while for the draft law on state social insurance, there were 255 votes in favour and 192 votes against.The two draft laws will be sent for promulgation to the President of the country, and after the decrees are signed, they will be published in the Official Journal.This year, the state budget was debated in Parliament over two days.The 2025 budget draft was approved by the Government on February 1.The budget is based on an economic growth of 2.5% and a budget deficit of 7% of GDP.Finance Minister Tanczos Barna emphasised in the joint plenary session of the Legislature that the state budget for 2025 is a balanced budget, one that is based on a prudent increase in revenues, without exaggerations.He also pointed out that the Law on State Social Insurance provides "first and foremost, payments for pensions.""Regardless of who will be in power in three, four, or five years at the Ministry of Finance, Romania's commitment to the European Commission must be respected, step by step, we must reduce the budget deficit, and at the same time, maintain investments. Investments are the engine of the economy, and investments are maintained in this budget. (...) This budget is a balanced one, based on a prudent increase in revenues, without exaggerations," said the Finance minister.
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 […]
