bcc: Romania Country Team, ECAEX TEAM Public Disclosure Authorized

Week 44 Economic News Political News Sector News Romania Keeps 72nd Rank in Doing Nominee to European Court of Selling of EUR82M Worth of Business 2013 Report. The country Auditors Rejected. The European Electricity by Hidroelectrica. maintained its 72 spot in the 185- Parliament rejected the Minister of The insolvent energy producer country Ease of Doing Business European Affairs Leonard Orban, the Hidroelectrica plans to sell 1.7 report, due to two reforms that made it country’s nominee to the European terawatts of electricity on the local

Public Disclosure Authorized easier to start a business and Court of Auditors. Read more. energy exchange OPCOM for a strengthened its legal framework for total of EUR82 million, according secured credit transactions. Read Visit of . President of the to OPCOM data. Read more. more. (EP), Martin Schulz, will arrive in Romania on Two Hundred Payments Pre-suspended for Three October 30 and will visit, along with Targeted by Railway Fraud EU-Funded Programs Worth Premier , the water Probe. About 200 people, mainly EUR10.5B. The European treatment plant in Târgu Jiu, not train conductors and controllers, Commission decided to pre-suspend considering this involvement in the were put under investigation payments for transport, regional elections campaign. On October 31, within a vast operation against development and economic Schulz will deliver a speech in railway fraud launched by the competitiveness programs, due to Parliament and at the Central University authorities. The passenger railway irregularities in the fund management Library, and will meet with President company registered losses of system. Read more. Traian Băsescu and other GoR officials. $57.2 million in the first half of

Public Disclosure Authorized Read more. 2012 following a dramatic drop in GDP Growth Forecast Cut to 0.5% the number of users, poor in 2012. The European Bank for Bulgaria Blames Schengen Failure on infrastructure and corruption. Reconstruction and Development Romania and EU Populism. Bulgarian Read more. revised downwards its forecast on the officials have blamed the country's latest country’s economic growth to 0.5% in failure to join the Schengen Agreement New CEO Possibly Needed for 2012, citing the eurozone crisis, the on Romania's upcoming Co-operation State Airliner Tarom. The lower farming output and the political and Verification Mechanism report and would-be CEO of flag air carrier uncertainty. Read more. on "internal political debates" in some Tarom, Heinrich Vystoupil, has EU countries. Read more. reportedly refused to take the job. Read more.

Analysis: Weekly Economic Update The public debt increased by 11.6% y/y to RON231.7bn (EUR51.9bn) or 37.8% of the year’s projected GDP (RON 612.5bn) at the end of August. Gross financing needs estimated for 2012 are: (i) budget deficit: RON11.7bn (the figure is due to Ministry of Public Finance; IMF has a slightly different figure of RON13.6bn); (ii) refinancing of public debt

Public Disclosure Authorized (based on government securities issued until October 26, 2012): RON50.7bn. The Ministry of Public Finance has been authorized by GoR to sell debt worth between EUR500 million and EUR1.5 billion via a new Eurobond issue on international markets. Difficulties in observing the end-December NFA target are expected due to delays of reimbursement of EU structural funds. On domestic market the yields decreased. Read the complete article on SharePoint. Strategy, Partnership, Dialogue EC Position Paper for 2014-2020. The position paper of the EC on the development of Partnership Agreement and Programmes in Romania for the next programming period will be officially presented November 5 in Bucharest. Francois Rantrua will attend the presentation. It highlights the key challenges and priorities of the country from EC's point of view. The next steps will be monitored by the CMU and updates will be provided, as they will impact the WB activities in Romania. Read the paper.

Assistance on Assessing the Conflict of Interest in Public Procurement. A meeting between the Ministry of European Affairs and the World Bank was organized on October 23, 2012 in order to discuss the potential Bank’s assistance to GoR for assessing the conflict of interest in public procurement. The Minister of European Affairs, Leonard Orban, participated in the discussions and emphasized the need for assistance in the context of imminent pre- suspension letters of the European Commission. In this sense, the Bank mobilized a team with support from the INT and Procurement departments. A Bank mission is expected to come to Bucharest by mid-November to further develop the scope of activities.

The Need for Reforms - Op.Ed. State Secretary, Claudiu Doltu, expresses his point of view with regard to the necessity of implementing a new generation of reforms in Romania. Read the full op-ed. Portfolio First Joint Monthly Meeting on RAS Activities. The meeting took place on October 26, being the first of the planned series of joint meetings with the representatives of the Government (Ministry of Public Finance, General Secretariat of the Government and Ministry of European Affairs) and the CMU to discuss the tools and processes for monitoring the Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) as part of the reforms agenda and to check the progress made in preparing and implementing the RAS.

Round Table on Getting People in from the Shadow. A round table event, organized by the Country Office, on the report: "In From the Shadow: Integrating Europe's Informal Labor", will take place on November 1, 2012 at the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection. The event will enable consultations between invited representatives of IFIs, local UN agencies, CSO, trade unions, academia and Government on addressing the issues emerging from an extensive informal employment and the shadow economy in Europe. Download the report or read a feature in Romanian.

Rehabilitated City Hall, County Library and Emergency Hospital. Three new objectives have been reached through the Hazard Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness project, jointly financed by the World Bank and GoR. The works were performed under Component B: Seismic Risk Reduction of the project and resulted in the following modernized and consolidated municipal buildings:

Adjud City Hall, Vrancea County

Duiliu Zamfirescu County Library, Focșani, Vrancea County

Emergency Clinical Hospital for Children „Grigore Alexandrescu”, Bucharest Working Together Together in ECA. The ECA Region Townhall Meeting took place October 24. The meeting was hosted by Phillipe Le Houerou and all Country Offices were connected by VC.

Time Change in Europe. Closer to DC for One Week. During October 29 – November 2, the time differential between Europe and DC will be 6 hours instead of 7. Europe has switched back to standard time October, 28, 2012 at 2 a.m. by moving the clocks back one hour. The US and Canada will change back to standard time on November 4, 2012 at 2 a.m. A tool like the World Meeting Planner can help in scheduling next audio/video/web conference with colleagues in other countries.

Dare to Disagree. Most people instinctively avoid conflict, but as Margaret Heffernan shows us, good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates (sometimes counter-intuitively) how the best partners aren’t echo chambers - and how great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree. The former CEO of five businesses, Margaret Heffernan explores the all-too-human thought patterns - like conflict avoidance and selective blindness - that lead managers and organizations astray. Enjoy the video. Communication Combating Nutrient Pollution and Raising Awareness. Kosuke Anan, Social Development Specialist, and Daniel Kozak, EXT, visited Albești, in Argeș county, to observe the Integrated Nutrient Pollution Control Project information caravan at work, as well as the infrastructure investments in the locality: a sewage system for the Roma community, individual platforms, and the communal platform that would contribute towards reducing nutrient discharges to water bodies in the village.

Celebration at Lotru Ciunget HPP. Hidroelectrica celebrated 40 years of Lotru hydroelectric power plant’s operation on October 19, 2012. The Bank has contributed to the operation of this plant through rehabilitation works. Knowledge Management Maximizing Mobile for Development. "Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile" flagship report is discussed on October 30, at 12:30 p.m. (D.C. time). The event can be watched online and a recording of the session will also be available post-event. If you have the chance, attend the event to be provided with an overview of the report and with a review of the opportunities that mobile applications bring to the Bank’s operational work. Learn more.

Get the Scoop. Learn how to use the Bank’s social collaboration tool and make your job easier through the great self- learning video tutorials and how-to resources from the Scoop Help Center. Start practicing in the Reimbursable Advisory Services Group. Contact Beatrice Gabor.

Exploring the IMF e-Library. The IMF eLibrary is available to all Bank staff. Please send your Mission and Events Schedule updates to [email protected]. Your contributions to the internal newsletter are kindly appreciated at [email protected] and [email protected]. Next Missions & Events Dates Purpose Team Lead/Team October 17 – November 2 Public Investment Framework Bernard Myers October 22 – 31 CESAR Implementation Support Mission Gabriel Ioniță, Mika Torhonen, Nadia Badea, Kosuke Anan, Fernando Galeana, Valeria Nikolaeva, Bogdan Constantinescu, Viorela Voinea, Anthony Lamb October 23 – November 27 RAS Assistance to the Ministry of Kenneth Gwilliam, David Rudge, Martha Transport and Infrastructure to Strengthen Lawrence Strategic Planning in the Transport Sector October 27 – November 3 RAS West Region project Mariana Iootty October 29 – November 6 Tax Administration Modernization Project Bernard Meyers, Stella Ilieva, Carlos Ferreira, William Hebb November 1 Informality Report Presentation to GoR, Richard Florescu, Daniel Kozak PMUs, Academia November 4 – 9 SASMP Implementation Support Mission Penny Williams, Gloria Rubio November 4 – 10 Advisory Services for Strengthening Antonio Velandia, Leandro Brufman Public Debt Management November 4 – 13 Joint IFI (IMF, EC, WB) Mission Pedro Rodriguez & Team

November 9 – 15 Judicial Reform Project Klaus Decker & Team Implementation Support Mission November 11- 14 StAR Engagement on Capacity Building Jacinta Oduor, Ruxandra Costache for the Ministry of Justice and the Institute of Magistracy December 12 RER EU11 Launch Cătălin Păuna For more details, check out the updated Missions and Events in the SharePoint calendar (use Windows login credentials).