EU member states decided on Wednesday, at Brussels that the technical evaluation reports of Romania and Bulgaria should be declassified and sent to the European Parliament, RFI informs. The evaluation reports will be delivered in a few days to the EP. read more...

Romanian housing prices will continue to decrease slightly in the first half of the year and will stabilize in the second half, according to evaluation firm Darian. read more...

Fifteen border police and customs workers at a border crossing point in southwestern Romania on Wednesday have been detained for 24 hours by anticorruption prosecutors. read more...

Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc urged Cabinet ministers Wednesday to complete a list of public-private partnership projects by March and called for a new auction to award construction works for the Comarnic-Brasov highway. read more...

The Romanian Structural Instrument Coordination Authority (ACIS) will be transferred from under the authority of the Finance Ministry to the prime minister, to monitor European fund absorption, Prime Minister Emil Boc announced Wednesday. read more...

Romanian senators on Wednesday rejected 51 to 27 votes and five abstentions a bill that would have renamed the country’s Roma minority internally as “gypsies”. read more...

National Authority for Customs chief Radu Marginean, indicted by anti-graft prosecutors in Bihor in the case involving Halmeu Customs and will be investigated in liberty for bribe taking, Realitatea TV informs. read more...

Romania can’t hope to obtain external loans if it continues to relay on consumption as the main engine for economic growth, central bank governor Mugur Isarescu said Wednesday. read more...

Romanian authorities can take lots of measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises, such as reducing bureaucracy and checkups, but also improving the business environment, central bank governor Mugur Isarescu said Wednesday. read more...

45 of the customs and police officers picked up after the massive raids on Tuesday morning at Stamora Moravita and Naidas customs were detained for 24 hours. read more...

The goal of the new arrangement with the IMF is to encourage durable economic growth, says Jeffrey Franks, chief of the negotiation mission with Romania, after the measures decided with the authorities in the past two years failed to bring about the much desired exit from recession. read more...

The revival of consumption, the signal all managers in a sector worth over 21 billion euros per year are waiting for, seems an increasingly unlikely scenario, after a 2010 in which the decline in food, drinks and non-food sales amounted to as much as 14% in volume, with the year also seeing the first decline in value in six years (-4.2%), according to data of market research company MEMRB. read more...

The European Commission wants to include mutual fund investors in compensation schemes, proposing damages of as much as 50,000 euros for each client that suffers losses. However, European states are against such a move, under the pressure of fund managers and banks, fearing that such a scheme for funds would generate high costs. read more...

Paneuropean corridor IV, the priority objective of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure over the next few years, could be fully completed as late as ten years from now, considering that the Sibiu-Piteşti section is still hanging in the air. read more...

The first 100 files for "First Home" mortgages from the 2011 ceiling have already been approved by the SME Loan Guarantee Fund (FNGCIMM) a week after the scheme was re-launched, but none of the banks that answered a ZF survey have effectively released any loan. read more...

Carrefour French retailer, with 1.13bn-euro turnover in 2010, has appointed a domestic entrepreneur, Vlad Ardeleanu, as head of procurement. read more...

The domestic copier and printer market will still be challenging on the consumer segment this year because of consumers' low purchasing power, while estimates are still upbeat with regard to corporate sector acquisitions, maintains Ciprian Barangă, a sales and marketing manager with Epson for Romania and Bulgaria. read more...

Convenience stores Mic.ro, held by businessman Dinu Patriciu, are seeking to boost sales by means of a card system that would replace the notebook still used for keeping track of debtors in stores in rural areas and small towns in Romania. read more...

Romania's public sector was reduced by almost 90,000 employees by November 2010 and the Government does not plan to "force layoffs" this year, aiming to lower personnel expenses via voluntary resignation or retirement, said Jeffrey Franks, head of the IMF delegation to Romania. read more...

Romania’s Foreign Affairs ministry informs Romanian citizens wishing to travel to Greece that in the upcoming period new protests will be organized that will block main roads in Greece and customs points to and from Bulgaria. read more...