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Leaders of parliamentary parties are invited by PM Tariceanu to attend the talks on post-accession strategy next week. PSD, unsatisfied with the draft proposed by the cabinet, threatens with non confidence vote while PRM asks the Executive to take responsibility for the document.
Bucharest – The main political preoccupation of the leaders, but also of the parties from the Opposition is Romania’s strategy for the post-accession period. PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu yesterday sent the leaders of parliamentary parties written invitations to a meeting concerning this strategy, scheduled for next week. Beforehand, there will be held a consultation with experts this week, which will be attended by specialists from academic environment, representatives of civil society, specialists in European affairs and economic environment.

Competition expected to rise in segments where local insurers lack experience.
Similarly to modifications in the insurance markets of neighbour states having joined the European Union in 2004, as of this year several hundreds of foreign competitors are expected to enter the local market. The latter are expected to focus on those market segments in which Romanian companies are not particularly experienced, such as property insurance and professional liability insurance. According to the Insurance Monitoring Commission (CSA), approx. 300 new insurers are expected to submit notifications to the relevant authority in order to launch operations in the Romanian market. “All they have to do to operate here is to notify the Insurance Monitoring Commission,” CSA president Angela Toncescu explained, quoted by “Capital” magazine. In the first one and a half years after the fourth EU enlargement wave, 324 new insurers notified their intention to sell policies in Hungary, 220 in Slovenia and 329 in Slovakia, according to the same source.

ROMANIA: Romania Has Most Expensive Loans of All EU Countries

Although Romania has done quite well so far with the transposition of the acquis communautaire in the finance-banking sector, at least until the date of the next meeting of the central bank’s board - scheduled for Feb. 9 - she will still have the highest monetary policy interest rate (8.75 percent) and the most substantial minimum required bank reserves in the European Union (EU-27): 20 percent for disbursements in national lei and 40 percent for loans in foreign currency, ACT Media news agency reports.