EC First Vice-President, Frans Timmermans, Pays Official Visit To Romania
Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission, pays an official visit to Romania on Thursday, where he will meet with the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, Liviu Dragnea, the chairman of the Senate, Calin Popescu-Tăriceanu, as well as Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu
The agenda of the EC First Vice President: * Informal meeting with the ambassadors of EU member states * Meeting with Senate chairman Calin Popescu Tariceanu * Meeting with Chamber of Deputies chairman Liviu Dragnea * Meeting with the members of the parliamentary legal and EU affairs committees * Meeting with Romanian PM Sorin Mihai Grindeanu and Finance Minister Tudorel Toader; Joint press statement with Grindeanu and Toader at 13:00 hours * Talks with the representatives of the civil society at 17:30 hours, press statements at 18:45 hours. (Adevarul)
New Car Registrations In Romania Up 27.5% In January-March
Romania ranks 18th in EU, with 22,276 new car registrations in the first three months of 2017, up 27.5% compared with the year-earlier period, according to the data from European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) and the association of automotive manufacturers in Romania ACAROM.
New registrations of Dacia cars in the European Union rose 9.9% to 111,126 units in January-March 2017, while Renault’s cars ranked third by the number of new registrations after VW and PSA groups.
Dacia had a market share of 2.6% in EU+ EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) in January-March.
According to ACEA, demand for passenger cars increased by 8.4%, totaling 4,141,269 units in January-March. (Adevarul)
Eurostat: Romania Posts Lowest Annual Inflation Rate In EU In March 2017
Romania posted the lowest annual inflation rate, of 0.4%, in the European Union in March 2017, while the EU’s average rate stood at 1.6% from 2% in February, EU’s statistics office Eurostat said Wednesday.
The lowest annual rates were registered in Romania (0.4%), Ireland and the Netherlands (both 0.6%), while the highest annual rates were recorded in Latvia (3.3%), Lithuania (3.2%) and Estonia (3.0%). Compared with February 2017, annual inflation fell in seventeen member states, remained stable in six and rose in five.
The largest upward impacts to euro area annual inflation came from fuels for transport (+0.48 percentage points), heating oil (+0.11 pp) and vegetables (+0.08 pp), while telecommunication and package holidays (-0.09 pp each), and garments (-0.05pp) had the biggest downward impacts. (Evenimentul Zilei)
Cristian Ghinea: Dacian Ciolos Should Be USR’s “First Important Acquisition” After Congress
USR deputy Cristian Ghinea said that Dacian Ciolos should be the “first important acquisition” of the party after the congress, and that he should have the role of president of USR government.
“Dacian Ciolos will continue with Romania 100 project, a non-political project at the moment, and he is waiting for things to be cleared up in USR. Me and other people said we want to create a big, open USR, with several leaders, and Dacian Ciolos would be the first important acquisition that the party should make. It won’t happen before the congress (…) Nothing involving Dacian Ciolos will happen in USR before the congress,” Ghinea said. (Puterea)
Labor Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu On Unitary Pay Law
Labor Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu said Wednesday that the draft law on the unitary pay law will be implemented starting with July 1, as stipulated in the governing program.
“The law will be implemented as of July 1. The law is a good one, there will probably be amendments in the Parliament, we are open to that,” Vasilescu said.
Labor Minister said she will have to analyze all the amendments and have meetings with certain union leaders. Vasilescu added that they also took into account a potential re-sending of the law to the Parliament.
According to the minister, some public employees could have higher salaries than the President’s wage, due to bonuses. (Puterea)