The ruling coalition in Romania has decided on the date of the new presidential elections, which will be held in Romania on May 4 and May 18, Reuters reports, citing sources in the Liberal Party of Romania.
According to the coalition parties, they have agreed to support a single presidential candidate to prevent the far-right from winning, and today their candidate is Crin Antonescu, the former leader of the Liberals, but experts suggest that another candidate from the ruling coalition may be nominated.
According to Politico, despite the cancellation of the results of the previous elections, pro-Russian candidate Kelin Georgescu remains popular in Romania, as evidenced by a poll conducted by Digi 24 at the request of Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, who also plans to run for president of Romania as an independent candidate in the re-election. The poll showed that at least 40 percent of Romanians plan to vote for Dănăsca, Dan told Digi24, without specifying how many people were interviewed.
On Wednesday, Elena Lascone, the leader of the liberal progressive party “Union for the Salvation of Romania”, which came in second in the previous elections with 19.18% of the vote, promised to run again.
As reported, in December 2024, the Romanian Supreme Court overturned the results of the first round of the November 24 presidential election due to allegations of foreign interference after the victory of pro-Russian candidate Kelin Georgescu.
Earlier, the Experts Club think tank released a video about the most important elections in the world, the video is available here – https://youtu.be/73DB0GbJy4M?si=zWf7UqPASklCy5nr
Romania and Bulgaria joined the Schengen area on Wednesday, and starting January 1, 2025, border controls will be abolished on the land borders of these countries with and between the Schengen countries.
“Romania and Bulgaria, welcome to Schengen,” European Parliament President Roberta Mecola wrote on social media on the night of January 1.
“From now on, there will be no more checks when crossing the land borders between Bulgaria or Romania and any Schengen country,” the European Parliament’s social network X reported.
The European Parliament recalled that border checks for air and sea travel were canceled back in March 2024.
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs called 2025 a historic year for Romania, Bulgaria and its people. “Full accession to the Schengen area is in line with European promises and legitimate expectations. This marks an important milestone in our history,” the statement said.
As reported in the social media of Hungary’s X presidency of the EU Council on December 12, the interior ministers “have just decided to abolish control of internal land borders with and between Bulgaria and Romania as of January 1, 2025.” Austria had previously opposed this because of the high level of illegal migration in Bulgaria and Romania, but later lifted its veto.
The Schengen area is a European space where border controls at the internal border have been abolished. The accession of countries will promote travel, trade and tourism.
Source: http://relocation.com.ua/rumuniia-ta-bolhariia-ofitsijno-vstupyly-do-shenhenskoi-zony/
Bulgaria’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Georgi Takhov asked the European Commission to take safeguard measures against honey imports from Ukraine at a meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council, and his request was supported by a representative of Romania, the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture reported.
According to Takhov, imports of Ukrainian honey make it difficult to sell local products. The fact is that significant volumes of Ukrainian honey entering the European market at very low prices put a lot of pressure on Bulgarian honey prices.
“In addition to the many challenges facing the industry, over the past three years it has also faced competition from imports from Ukraine. The volume of honey imported from Ukraine to our country from January to October 2024 increased by more than 30% compared to the same period last year,” Takhov emphasized and added that the high level of imports from Ukraine puts Bulgarian producers in a difficult situation.
At a press conference following the meeting of EU agriculture ministers, Hungarian Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy explained that Bulgaria and Romania demanded safeguard measures for imports of honey from Ukraine to the European Union, as the duty-free quota set in the autonomous trade liberalization has been exhausted, and “the duty creates problems in domestic markets burdened by imports.”
“The measure – the so-called ATM regulation – has been exhausted, but the amount of honey coming from Ukraine is still subject to duty, which also creates problems in domestic markets that are burdened by imports,” the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture quoted him as saying.
Nagy emphasized that effective measures should be taken to prevent counterfeit honey from entering the EU market, for example, by labeling and separating natural and non-natural honey. He also believes that it is necessary to compensate for the “emerging competitive disadvantages” and to further support the beekeeping sector.
As reported, on August 20, the European Commission imposed tariff quotas on Ukrainian honey due to the excess of quota-free volumes of its supplies to the European market. Imports of honey from Ukraine from the beginning of 2024 to August exceeded the quota of 44.418 thousand tons. Additional imports are subject to most favored nation (MFN) duties. In particular, a new tariff quota will be introduced from January 1, 2025, until June 5, 2025, which corresponds to 5/12 of the threshold set for the emergency braking. For honey, the new quota will amount to 18,507 tons.
From June 2, 2024 to June 5, 2025, the European Commission introduced quotas for the supply of eggs and sugar to the European Union. For eggs, the new quota is set at 9,662 thousand tons, and for sugar – at 109,44 thousand tons.
On May 13, 2024, the Council of the European Union approved the extension of temporary trade liberalization measures for Ukraine for another year, until June 5, 2025. At the same time, it was envisaged to apply an emergency braking mechanism for particularly sensitive agricultural products, including sugar, eggs, poultry, oats, corn, honey, and cereals, in case imports of these products in 2024 exceed the average volumes recorded in the second half of 2021 and during 2022 and 2023. Similar emergency braking measures may be applied in 2025 if, in the period from January 1 to June 5, 2025, the volume of Ukrainian exports exceeds 5/12 of the quota set for 2024.
According to Art. 4(7) of the Regulation on autonomous trade measures applicable to Ukrainian products, Ukraine will be able to supply to the EU from June 6, 2024 to June 5, 2025 without paying any duty 57,101 thousand tons of poultry meat, 9,662 thousand tons of eggs, 109,439 thousand tons of sugar, 18,507 thousand tons of honey, 4.648 million tons of corn, 1,017 thousand tons of oats, 8,603 thousand tons of cereals.
Romania has expanded the list of goods imported from Ukraine that require a license to enter the country to include eggs and poultry meat, Euractiv.ro reported, citing information from the Romanian government. The publication reminded that Romanian poultry producers faced a “serious problem” due to the import of eggs and poultry meat from Ukraine, which are sold at prices significantly lower than the cost of production in Romania.
According to the Minister of Agriculture Florin Barbu, after discussions with representatives of the poultry industry, the government decided to add eggs and poultry meat to the list of products that can be imported from Ukraine only with a license. The list also includes cereals, seeds, flour and sugar.
“It is our duty to protect Romanian production,” Barbu said.
In addition, he reminded that Romania, as a member of the European Union, must comply with certain production requirements in the poultry sector, which is why Romanian poultry farmers have “30% higher costs than in Ukraine.”
Barbu also emphasized that there is no ban on imports of Ukrainian eggs and poultry meat.
“We have made this decision on licensing to ensure that when the food industry needs these products and Romania is not completely self-sufficient, only Romanian processors will be able to import them under license,” he added.
After the European Commission decided not to extend the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain to five neighboring EU countries (Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary) in September 2023, Romania introduced import licenses for grains and oilseeds from Ukraine and Moldova. This measure, introduced in October last year, was extended.
According to this decision, only Romanian companies engaged in the production of oil and fat products, flour milling, animal feed production and livestock farming are entitled to import agricultural products from Ukraine and Moldova.
Ukrainian one-dollar store chain Aurora has expanded its network to 25 stores and served more than 1 million customers in Romania over the past year, CEO Taras Panasenko said on Facebook.
“Exactly one year ago, the first store in Suceava opened its doors. Now we already have 25 stores here, and eight are in the pipeline to open soon. This year we have served more than 1 million customers in Romania (…), 98% of them are locals,” Panasenko said.
He noted that the segment in Romania is still far from being profitable, “because we need to scale up and fine-tune the product, but we are growing steadily, both quantitatively and qualitatively.”
At the same time, in Romania, Aurora’s NPS (Net Promoter Score), measured by an independent marketing agency, is even higher than in Ukraine, reaching 86.
“We are the first case in the history of independent Ukraine when a system retailer has successfully scaled to the EU. We support local Romanian and Ukrainian producers who export a lot of goods to Aurora Romania. This includes manufacturers from the frontline cities,” he said.
“Aurora was founded in 2011 by Lev Zhidenko, Taras Panasenko and Lesya Klymenko. The retail chain is headquartered in Poltava. The chain has 1528 stores in Ukraine and 25 in Romania.
According to Opendatabot, the owner of Vygidna Pokupka LLC, which develops the chain, is listed as Auroritail Investments Limited of Cyprus, with Zhydenko as its beneficiary. The Cypriot company also owns Prior Development LLC, Seven A LLC, Promyslova 9 LLC, and Tak LLC.
At the end of 2023, the network’s net profit amounted to UAH 4.1 billion, and net income – UAH 27 billion.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 occurred in Romania at 17:40 Kyiv time, with tremors also felt in the city of Odesa. According to the website of the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center, the epicenter was located in the Vrancha Zone in the Carpathians at a depth of 137 km.
Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov reported no casualties or damage in the city.
“An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 occurred in Romania. It was felt in Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine, including Odesa. There was no information about damage or injuries in the city,” Trukhanov wrote on Telegram.
In local social media, users reported that the tremors were also felt in Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, and Bila Tserkva in Kyiv Oblast.
