CSAT meeting at Cotroceni Palace
Presidential Palace at Cotroceni in Romania’s capital Bucharest will host a high level meeting of CSAT (Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defence) on Tuesday. Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis and leading CSAT officials are expected to discuss issues concerning security situation in the Black Sea region in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Talks will also include the situation of democracy in neighbouring Republic of Moldova and issues concernig an army modernisation programme along with a defence budget increase at 2.5 percent of the GDP. A national defence strategy for 2020 – 2024 was approved in June 2020.
‘Government’s Hour’ in parliament’s lower house
The ‘Government’s Hour’ in the parliament’s lower house, the House of Deputies, will host a meeting with Romanian Finance Minister Adrian Câciu. The opposition center-right Save Romania Union (USR) expects Mr. Câciu to clarify issues concerning the budget revenue as the party called on the governing center-left Social Democrat Party (PSD) and center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) to operate cuts in the so-called special pensions. Last week, Minister Câciu said government earnings in the first quarter were RON 4 billion lower than planned while Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă called on each ministry to operate budget cuts at a time when its deficit hit 1.4 percent. However, the prime minister said that layoffs, and salary or investment cuts remained out of question. Romania has committed to reforming the so-called special pensions through the recovery plan. The PNL-PSD governing coalition promised to make a pension reform to eliminate inequalities as requested by the European Commission
Chair of NATO Military Committee on a visit to Romania
The current Chair of NATO Military Committee is visiting Romania between April 11 – 14. A former Chief of Defence of the Netherlands, Admiral Rob Bauer visited Italy last month upon an invitation of Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, Chief of Defence of the Italian Armed Forces. Mr. Bauer is NATO’s senior military officer and senior military spokesperson for the Alliance on all military matters while also acting as principal military adviser of the Secretary General. The visit of Mr. Bauer will include meetings on Wednesday with Romania’s Defence Minister Angel Tîlvăr and General Daniel Petrescu, the head of Romanian Army’s Joint Chief of Staff.
Alexandru Danga
