News review of the day – December 10th

Romania”s population has decreased in October by over 4,000 people

Romania’s population has decreased in October by over 4,000 people, almost the population of an average village, after three consecutive months of growth, the National Institute of Statistics has announced today. The number of deaths recorded in October was nearly 22,000, and the number of children born alive was under 18,000. Compared with the same month last year, both the number of live newborns and the number of deaths were higher by about 300 in October of this year.

Romania’s 2015 budget in line with medium-term budgetary goal

The Community Executive has announced that the team consisting of representatives of the European Commission and the IMF has reached an agreement with the Government in Bucharest on Romania’s budget for 2015 in accordance with the goals of the program supported by the Stand-by Agreement. The draft budget includes a deficit of 1.8 percent of GDP. The European Commission says that this is consistent with the medium-term budgetary goal, a situation that will allow a faster absorption of the EU funds. A joint mission of the IMF and the European Commission will come to Bucharest again in January.

Worsening of the Romanian-Hungarian relations should be prevented by continuous dialogue

A worsening of the Romanian-Hungarian relations must be prevented by a direct, on-going dialogue, – Bogdan Aurescu, Romanian Foreign Minister has said in a TV interview, reported the Romanian press on Wednesday . According to his statement in this regard he had also agreed upon this with Péter Szíjjártó, Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Economic Relations, during the OSCE meeting in Basel, last week. Mr Aurescu has added that he accepted the invitation of his Hungarian counterpart to discuss, early next year, in Budapest „both topics of common interest and sensitive issues.” When asked if the closeness between Hungary and Russia jeopardizes the chances for regional affirmation of Romania, Mr Aurescu said that the Romanians and the Hungarians are together in the EU and NATO and, in addition, each Member State establishes its own sovereign foreign policy.