Romanian President Traian Basescu and the ruling coalition discussed on Monday whether pensioners should contribute to the social health insurance fund, says daily newspaper "Gandul". read more...

Romania taxes labor excessively, while capital is taxed below European limits, which leads to tax evasion because people would rather be paid in dividends or receive undeclared salaries, said Romanian Businesspeople Association (AOAR) president Florin Pogonaru. read more...

The Romanian Government agrees with a parliamentary initiative to change the official naming of people belonging to the Roma ethnic group from "Rom" to "Tigan" ("Gypsy"). read more...

A US state department cable, released by Wikileaks shows that a German company planned to supply Iran in 2007 with illegal equipments for the defense industry. read more...

Romanian President Traian Basescu told coalition leaders in a meeting Monday the country’s budget resources don’t allow the keeping of child rearing benefits for the current period of two years and suggested parental leave should be shortened to one year, people at the meeting told Mediafax. read more...

Romania’s Government will decide whether to lower or keep child rearing benefits unchanged after consultations with lawmakers of the ruling coalition parties Monday, people close to the matter told Mediafax. read more...

Romania’s President Traian Basescu went to the Government’s headquarters Monday morning where ruling coalition members met to discuss the 2011 state budget and what to do about propositions to halve parental leave, people close to the matter told Mediafax. read more...

Liberal Mariana Campeanu, a former labor minister, won the by-election held Sunday in a constituency in Hunedoara county, western Romania, for a lawmaker seat in the Chamber of deputies, the local electoral office said Monday. read more...

The last Schengen evaluations visit for Romania to join Schengen is taking place from 6-10 December and is related to the SIS/SIRENE sector. read more...

Consumption of spirits in Romania has decreased this year to 5 liters per capita from 6 liters per capita last year because of the recession, Romulus Dascalu, head of the Garant employers’ association in the industry, told Mediafax. read more...

The European Commission has warned the Romanian Government the application of the unitary wage law on the country’s energy regulator ANRE could affect the institution’s independence which could bring about an infringement procedure, people close to the matter. read more...

Banker Nicolae Dănilă, former chief executive of BCR and currently a member of NBR's Board of Directors, has increased his liquid assets by almost two million euros from June through October, so that his financial assets reached about 20.8 million euros, according to his personal financial disclosure statement dated October 26. read more...

The Government allocated 3.2 billion RON (800 million euros) in the 2011 State Social Security Budget (BASS) for payment of pensions to military and police personnel, as well as to former employees of secret services, yet it has no idea how much money (if any) it saved with the recalculation of these "special pensions", which used to be confidential until recently. read more...

The First Home scheme might undergo significant changes next year when the guarantee provided by the state could go down and the maximum amount that clients borrow could be raised, banking sources say, which means banks will take some of the risks taken by the state in full so far. read more...

BCR, the biggest bank on the Romanian market, had 120 million euros' worth of mortgage loans refinanced with other banks, accounting for 8% of the portfolio, after the elimination of the early repayment fee, as part of Ordinance 50. read more...

Twelve of the biggest retailers on the Romanian market, in sectors such as DIY (BauMax, Dedeman and Hornbach), food retail (Kaufland, MiniMax, Profi, RED Market, Plus) and electronics & home appliances (Altex, Domo and Flanco) have either finalised or are in the process of opening 20 new stores before Christmas, following investments estimated at 70 million euros. read more...

Dan Şucu, the owner of Mobexpert and one of the most fervent critics of domestic banks' policy, is again saying consumer spending would pick up provided that loan interests were cut to half. read more...

The initial public offering of Hidraulica Plopeni (HPR) producer of hydraulic pumps was just 0.04% subscribed, the lowest level registered by an IPO launched on the Stock Exchange in the past 10 years. read more...

Less than one year after being appointed at the helm of cigarette producer Philip Morris Romania and Bulgaria, Roman Yazbeck, 41, was promoted as vice-president of the Russia division of the cigarette producer, which employs over 3,500, has two plants, and nearly 100 sales offices. read more...

CEC and BCR are the two banks that submitted offers for the 600m RON (around 142m euros) loan the Cluj-Napoca city hall wants to contract for the first payments related to planned or underway investments. read more...