The National Union of Romanian Hauliers (UNTRR) welcomes the political agreement reached regarding the enlargement of the Schengen Area with Romania and Bulgaria's air and sea borders starting from March 2024, but calls on Romanian and European authorities to also establish a clear date for the enforcement of the Schengen visa-free rules for land borders as well, starting in 2024."Schengen accession is an important and much-awaited step by Romanian passengers and transport operators, which should have been achieved as early as in 2011, when the European institutions found that Romania meets all the technical requirements for admission. Given that all passenger data are at the disposal of air transport operators, the enlargement of the Schengen Area with Romania's air borders could have been accomplished a long time ago. There is obviously no justification of a technical nature for the delay, the reasons are political, the members of the EU club have chosen to punish Romania and Bulgaria and reduce their competitiveness all this time, curbing their development potential. Yet now, Romania's joining the Schengen with the land borders is an emergency for road freight carriers whose efficiency is currently severely penalized through the extremely long waiting times (about 30 - 36 hours daily between Romania and Bulgaria) and for coach operators, in order to avoid the significant administrative burden arising from the new obligations of verifying passenger data in the European EES and ETIAS travel registration and authorization systems starting from next year," UNTRR secretary general Radu Dinescu said, as cited in a release of the organization.According to a report conducted by UNTRR this year on the impact on road freight of Romania being kept out of Schengen, the industry incurred losses of 2.41 billion euros."We request the urgent setting of a definite date for Romania's Schengen entry with land borders too, and if there are certain special requirements, they should be clearly mentioned in order to have a precise reference regarding the accession calendar and the goals to be achieved. The criteria the other members of the EU club want Romania and Bulgaria to fulfill must not exceed the general framework and the technical requirements for admission," said Dinescu.UNTRR representatives point out that the road transport industry, which with 7.66 billion euros in 2022 is Romania's largest exporter of services, is the economic branch most affected by Romania being kept out of Schengen.
The average pension in Romania increased by 5.4% compared to a 2-3 average, reaching RON2,248 (€452) in April this year, according to the National Public Pension House (CNPP). The number of recipients was 4.75mn (4.98mn in 2023), of which 3.81mn reached the retirement age and completed the full required period of contribution to the public […]
The ILO seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 5.3% in March, from 5.6% in February and 5.7% in January, Romania’s statistics office INS announced. Compared to a year ago, in March 2023 (5.5%), the unemployment rate was 0.2 percentage points (pp) lower. The unemployment rate was higher among men...
Romanian telecom group DIGI Communications (BVB: DIGI), with a market capitalization of RON 5.76bn (EUR 1.16bn), announced that the company’s management proposes to distribute RON120mn (EUR 24mn) as dividends for the fiscal year 2023, the equivalent of a gross yield of nearly 2.1%. The company’s price soared by 58% y/y compared to the 41% y/y […]
Romania’s competition body Consiliul Concurentei cleared the transaction by which Intesa Sanpaolo SpA intends to take over the Romanian bank First Bank from the US fund J.C. Flowers, according to a press release from the authority. Intesa Group is active in Romania through its subsidiary, Banca Comercială Intesa Sanpaolo Romania. Upon the takeover, Intesa will […]
Fintech start-up MetaWealth, which tokenizes real estate properties, announced it partnered with real estate developer One United Properties in a EUR 20mn framework agreement for rental apartments that will give MetaWealth investors access to the residential projects developed by One United. MetaWealth will list three new assets, to be purchased from One United, on its […]
US president Joe Biden thanked his counterpart Klaus Iohannis for Romania's activity within NATO, 20 years after the country joined the Alliance – as the main message conveyed by Biden after the meeting of the two on May 7 in Washington. "You [Romania] exceeded all expectations 20 years ago when you joined NATO. Thank you […]
