Romania expected to join EU’s Schengen air and sea free travel area in three days
There are still three days before Romania’s formal access to EU’s free air and sea travel area. On 31 March, Romania and Bulgaria will start the process of joining the Schengen Area as controls are lifted at air and sea borders. However, talks on lifting controls at land borders are still ongoing. The move comes after Austria has dropped some of its previous opposition but there’s still no agreement on opening of land borders. The country’s partial Schengen entry will be marked by the opening on Friday of a new international departures terminal at the Traian Vuia Airport in Romania’s western city of Timișoara.
Draft order expected on changes to fiscal and budgetary measures
In a draft order, Romania’s government is expected to approve changes to fiscal-budgetary measures at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday. The document would limit management positions at no more than 10 percent of employees in authority departments and agencies. The Cabinet is also expected to maintain such bonuses as food or meal vouchers for monthly wages not to exceed RON 8,000 for both gaining or loss-making enterprises. The new draft will also establish net profit quotas for both national and autonomous agents to state budget. Romania recorded a Budget deficit equal to 5.60 percent of the country’s GDP in 2023, according to preliminary data.
Romanian-born playwright Eugene Ionesco on a French stamp
The Stamp Service of La Poste (the postal service of France) issued a stamp in the memory of Eugene Ionesco, the Romanian-born French playwright unanimously seen as the father of absurd theatre. A portrait of Eugene Ionesco appears in a limited edtion of 600.000 stamps. Ionesco launched a „revolution” in techniques drama with his famous The Bald Soprano (La cantatrice chauve). He became a member of the French Academy in 1970 also becoming the first Romanian-born writer to receive the honour.
Alexandru Danga, RADOR
