France and Germany oppose officially Bulgaria and Romania's joining Schengen. In a common letter, written by German and French Interior ministers addressed to the European Interior Affairs Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, they say that if Romania and Bulgaria would join Schengen in March 2011, this would be premature, RFI informs. read more...

Most Romanians buying Christmas presents will get sweets, clothing and accessories and prefer to get them on sale, according to a survey released Tuesday by market research company GfK Romania. read more...

Wages of temporary employees in Romania have increased by an average 5% this year, with the biggest raises in sectors like IT, administration and banking, according to a survey conducted by staff recruitment firm Trenkwalder. read more...

Holders of ongoing loans who want to benefit from the provisions of Ordinance 50/2010, which establishes transparent terms for the consumers' loans, need to hurry and sign the additional papers supplied by the bank before Parliament gives its final vote on the modified form of the ordinance. read more...

The turnover of insolvent bookstore chain Diverta fell by 26.6% in the first eleven months of this year against the similar period of last year, to 18.8 million euros. read more...

The latest statistics on the number of employees comes from Labour Inspection Authority, which counted 4.6 million active employment contracts in the first nine months of the year based on data reported only by private employers. As of the same date, the National Statistics Institute (INS) counted only 3.23 million private sector employees. read more...

Austria's Immofinanz investment fund, the most powerful investor on the domestic real estate market after taking over Immoeast fund, in the first half of the financial year (May-October 2010) 22.8m-euro revenues from the renting of 15 real estate properties domestically, down 13% from the same period of last year, though the Austrians hold a portfolio valued at 885m euros in Romania. read more...

Arval, the operational leasing company controlled by French group BNP Paribas, estimates an increase in business on the Romanian market by up to 25%, according to statements of company officials, to around 25 million euros. read more...

The creditors of satellite TV services provider DTH Television Grup (Boom TV), which became insolvent in mid this year, failed to reach an agreement on the strategy to sell the company's assets, representatives of Casa de Insolvenţă Transilvania (CITR) insolvency firm, the company in charge of the operator's reorganisation, told ZF. read more...

The largest state-owned energy companies, which generate turnovers of hundreds of million euros and have huge investment plans, keep their accounts or borrow from foreign banks, while CEC (Romanian Savings Bank) is an almost inexistent option as regards lending to or managing the money of some giants such as Hidroelectrica, Electrica or Transelectrica. read more...

Labormed drug producer, owned by Advent International investment fund, has budgeted a 25% turnover increase for 2011 from the 70-75m-euro level reached this year. read more...

Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc on Monday invited union representatives to talks in an attempt to unblock social dialog after unionists decided not to attend the meetings of social dialog committees, displeased that the Government discarded their opinion regarding the new Labor Code. read more...

Romanian former tennis player Ilie Nastase was fined 600 lei (EUR1=RON4.2897) Monday by the country’s National Council Against Discrimination for his saying French president Nicolas Sarkozy was right to deport Roma people. read more...

The rejection of the motion of censure on the law on budgetary salaries in 2011 is a good news for employees in the public sector who will benefit from a 15% increase in salaries and will not receive the poisoned gift of the Opposition, who attempted to block the measure out of populist measures, PM Boc declared after the vote in the Parliament. read more...

PDL Constanta Senator, Mircea Banias declared on Monday that he is living an absurd story through his involvement, by anti graft prosecutors in the fiscal evasion file at UCM Resita. read more...

The Romanian Chamber of Deputies on Monday approved with 171 votes in favor, 49 votes against and five abstentions the draft law on family allowance, whose articles were adopted last week. read more...

Romanian MPs in the Chamber of Deputies on Monday passed a government decree raising the sales tax to 24% from 19%, which has been in effect since July. read more...

The Romanian opposition’s no-confidence motion over the wage law for 2011, which was debated in Parliament Monday, was rejected as the motion got only 190 votes in favor and one vote against and needed 236 votes to pass. read more...

The Romanian opposition Social Democratic Party will challenge the wage law for 2011 at the Constitutional Court if the opposition’s no-confidence motion over the normative act is rejected by lawmakers, party leader Victor Ponta said Monday. read more...

Rompetrol is holding talks with Romania’s Finance Ministry for a solution to the group’s historic state debt, since Romanian and Kazakh presidents Traian Basescu and Nursultan Nazarbayev agreed the issue would be solved amiably, the oil company said in a statement. read more...