RODICA

The current account of Romania's 2017 balance of payments ran a deficit of over 6.464 billion euro, up 84.79 percent from 2016, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) said in a release on Tuesday.

Defence Minister Mihai Fifor said on Friday that pay will increase by 3 percent for the staff of Defence Ministry following the application of the uniform public pay law.

Romania's industrial turnover advanced 11.7 percent in 2017 y-oy, with the most important increases having been recorded in mining and quarrying and manufacturing, according to data with the National Institute of Statistics (INS) released on Friday.

A memorandum on the implementation plan of the European Union directives for this year was approved on Thursday by the Government, announced the Executive's Spokesman Nelu Barbu, stating that internal legislative measures are needed to transpose 40 directives in Romania.

Minister of National Defence Mihai Fifor met on Wednesday with Ambassador of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Romania Paul Brummell, with the agenda of the talks including topical subjects related to cooperation at bilateral level and under the auspices of the North-Atlantic Alliance, a release informs.

The Romania - NATO expert meeting taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday in Bucharest is an important stage in the analysis of defence capabilities under the NATO defence planning process, the National Defence Ministry (MApN) said in a release.

The Romanian Crown Custodian, Margareta, expressed appreciation for "the work and history" of the AGERPRES National News Agency during a visit she paid together with Prince Radu on Tuesday at AGERPRES headquarters.

Romanian-Moldovan bilateral military cooperation, regional security strengthening as well as the cooperation relations between the Republic of Moldova with the North-Atlantic Alliance and the European Union were among the topics tackled during the meeting in Chisinau, between National Defence Minister Mihai Fifor and his counterpart of the Republic of Moldova, Eugen Sturza.

The "Danube Riparian Local Communities" Association (CLDR Romania) announced on Friday, at the conference launching the Smart Innovative Learning Hub platform, that it is in full process of consultations and collection of proposals, suggestions and recommendations on the creation of a new aggregator of networks and projects.

The censure motion initiated by the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Save Romania Union (USR), called "PSDragnea, during the campaign mother, at rule, plague," was rejected in the joint plenary sitting of Parliament, with 159 votes in favour, 3 against and 23 abstentions. To be adopted, the motion needed minimum 233 votes in favour.