The calendar and guides for seven national programmes, of the 11 that we will have, will be released on 25 March, so that the local public authorities can apply for them, in order to improve the lives of communities that they represent, Environment Minister Daniel Constantin stated. 

"Although only two months have passed since the ministries were taken over, we are prepared to launch more programmes, many more compared to the number of programmes that were launched last year, that will be funded by the Environment Fund, from the sources that we have at the Finance Ministry from the the emission of carbon dioxide.

The difference between the European Commission's and Romania's estimates regarding the 2017 budget deficit arise from the use of different estimation methodologies, but the Romanian authorities have pledged a governing program that will meet the deficit target of less than 3 pct of GDP, the Ministry of Public Finance said in a release.

 "In its letter the European Commission expresses concerns about Romania possibly overshooting the 2017 deficit target. According to the state budget approved by the Parliament of Romania, the government pledged a budget deficit below 3 percent, under observance of the Maastricht criteria. The difference between the two approaches is the result of different methodologies being used for the estimation," said the Ministry of Finance. 

The draft on the state budget was adopted by 208 votes to 105, and that of the social insurance budget was adopted by 208 votes to 107.

"The annual budget is definitely an important moment for Romania, the Government and Parliament, as set as a priority are all projects and all short and medium-term public programmes. It is maybe the only moment in which the significance of the words in political statements is replaced with the cold reality of the figures in the state budget draft law and the social insurance budget draft. 

The National Union of Judges of Romania (UNJR) has published a letter referring to the extension of competencies of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) in the area of justice, received from the Supreme Council for the Country's Defence (CSAT) in February 2016, following a request formulated by the magistrate association. 

Several states of Central and Eastern Europe underscore the importance of NATO's "open door" policy, as one of the most successful Euro-Atlantic policies, and says that the doors of the North-Atlantic Alliance remain open to all democracies sharing its values and contributing to the security of the North-Atlantic area. 

This represents, according to a press release issued by the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) quoted by Agerpress one of the conclusions of the meeting of foreign ministers from Central and Eastern Europe - the Bucharest Format, attended by the foreign ministers of Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and high level representatives from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia and Bulgaria. 

Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has nominated Dragos Tudorache for the position of minister of interior following the resignation of Petre Toba on September 1. The Prime Minister thanked Petre Toba for his work at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and expressed hope that he will clarify as soon as possible the situation with charges from the National Anticorruption Office DNA and suspicions of plagiarism for his doctorate thesis.