As of today, Bucharest is hosting the FINABEL Coordination Committee meeting, attended by the chiefs of staff of the land forces of 17 EU member states, representatives of European military organisations and of NATO. Romania has been a member of the FINABEL Coordination Committee since 2008, and it held the presidency of this organisation between April 2012 and April 2013. Set up in 1953, the FINABEL Coordination Committee made of the cooperation in developing joint military equipping programs its first objective. Later on, the Committee expanded its sphere of interest towards harmonising doctrines and achieving interoperability between the Land Forces of the European FINABEL member states. The FINABEL Coordination Committee is currently made up of the chiefs of staff of the Land Forces from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, Finland, Romania, Cyprus, Malta and the Czech Republic.

The “Car Scrapping” Program, meant to renew Romania’s car fleet comes again into the focus of attention, being publicly debated, as of today. According to the environment minister, Rovana Plumb, the value of a coupon obtained in exchange for a car older than 10 years will increase from approximately 860 Euros to some 1,500 Euros. The issuance and distribution of coupons will start on May the 15th. As of this year, only one coupon can be used in order to buy a new car. The program meant to encourage the renewal of the national car fleet was initiated in 2004. The most spectacular results were registered in 2010, when approximately 117,000 old cars were scrapped under the program.