Moldova’s newly appointed PM on a visit to Romania
Pavel Filip, the newly appointed Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, is visiting Romania on Monday when he is expected to meet the country’s President Klaus Iohannis at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in the capital Bucharest. Mr. Filip is also expected to meet Prime Minister Dacian Cioloş. It is the first official visit abroad of Mr. Filip, just days after his appointment as prime minister. His election came after former prime minister Vlad Filat was arrested over a bank fraud and his successor Valeriu Streleţ was dismissed in a no-confidence vote in October. Moldova has been hit by political crisis after $1bn – equivalent to an eighth of the country’s entire GDP – vanished from Moldovan banks last January. Moldova is Europe’s poorest country and foreign aid has become an emergency.
Romania in EC’s Fiscal Sustainabily Report 2015
The executive arm of the EU publised its Fiscal Sustainability Report 2015 providing an overview of the challenges to public finance sustainability faced by Member States in the short, medium and long term. The European Commission publishes a study on the issue every three years reviewing the situation of public finances in the EU today. The Commission believes that Romania along with France, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Portugal, Finland and the United Kingdom are facing sustainability risks of their public finance. However, over the short term, „Romania does not appear to face significant risks of fiscal stress arising from either the fiscal, or the macrofinancial side of the economy”, the EC estimates. „Looking beyond to medium-term sustainability challenges, a debt sustainability analysis for Romania shows that, under normal economic conditions and no fiscal policy change from the last Commission forecast year, Romania’s public debt would steadily increase to just above 60% of GDP in 2026”, the report says.
Future of TTIP under debate
The future of the Transatlantic Partnership came under debate at a conference hosted by the British Embassy in the capital Bucharest on Tuesday. Participants included European Commission officials and the US acting chief negotiator in the field. British Ambassador to Romania Paul Brummel is a great supporter of the partnership as he believes that businesses and consumers are both expected to benefit from a trade and investment partnership between the EU and the US. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is aimed at promoting multilateral economic growth. After a proposed draft was leaked in March 2014, the European Commission launched a public consultation on a limited set of clauses and in January 2015 published parts of an overview. However, the proposed treaty has received a mix of praise and criticism from various groups. Participants in the event also include James Hammontree, US acting Chief Negotiator for TTIP, and David Henig, Assistant Director at Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, currently working on the EU-US trade deal.
Report on Colectiv nightclub fire tragedy
Experts in the Romanian western town of Petroşani concluded their report concerning the deadly fire at the Colectiv nightclub in the capital Bucharest last October. The research was conducted in labs at an institute in the mining region of Jiu Valley following a request by Romanian prosecutors in Bucharest, according to reports on Tuesday. The 500-page report was finalised after 4,000 hours of lab tests and analyses. The blaze took hold at the Colectiv club on October 30, causing a stampede for the exit. The fire is believed to have been caused by fireworks that were let off inside the club. More than 60 people died.
Alexandru Danga
