BrexitToRemainia Newsletter #53

For (+/-British) entrepreneurs interested in Romania. Every 2 weeks. Reads in <5 minutes

#HopeForRomania continues. Since 2 weeks ago, fresh news are to be shared, hopefully for the benefit of a more democratic Romania: many PSD members of Parliament started to default to a new leftwing party, led by ex-PM Victor Ponta. Details below. And for those interested in the business, Norwegian funds are available for green stuff, blue stuff and IT stuff (you’ll understand when you read). Same with iCEE Fest, taking place in Bucharest in June. See you in 2 week’s time.

Read the online version of this edition here and the full BrexitToRemainia Newsletter archive here.

Opposition on the rise

Last time we were complaining how big and autocratic PSD party (social democrats) became since they got hold of the power. But we also noticed a sharp decline in their popularity (from 40–45% to 28% since 2016 elections) and a sharp increase in the performance of opposition on the right side of the political spectrum (PNL now having as much as 29% of intentions to vote). With the recent news -which we present below-, competition to PSD starts to take shape from within, too. What a great news for many!

You might remember Victor Ponta as the prime minister who was forced to resign shortly after the Colectiv club fire tragedy in 2015 (of which we spoke a little bit here). Since then he tried to make his way back to the top, both in Romanian politics as well as in his own PSD party. But a series of penal charges, unsuccessful campaigns (2014 presidentials) and the failed “coup” (when he supported ex-PM Grindeanu) made him an isolated figure expelled from PSD …

… until few days ago, when Victor Ponta was set free of charges in his major corruption-related case, from the times he was a lawyer 10 years ago. Earlier this year he (together with ex agriculture minister Daniel Constantin) created a new political party called Pro Romania. The party is designed to fill a vacuum in Romania for “a huge pro-European, progressive, social-liberal” segment of society that feels neglected by the Social Democrats and let down by the weakened opposition National Liberal Party (PNL), Ponta said in a recent interview.

Now that Ponta’s criminal record is clean (meaning he can run for elections in 2019 and 2020) and given the latest scandals involving PSD (such as the one related to Romania’s embassy in Israel), Pro Romania has welcomed quite few noteworthy names as members:

1. Nicolae Banicioiu, ex-Minister of Health in Ponta Government
2. Mircea Titus Dobre, ex Tourism Minister in Tudose & Grindeanu governments
3. Gabriela Podasca, PSD deputy, ex secretary of state in Ministry of Youth and Sports
4. Emilia Meirosu, PSD deputy, representing Braila country
5. Catalin Nechifor, ex president of Suceava county council continuing now as independent member of the Parliament

Of course all of these are members of the Parliament, so the PSD-ALDE majority is waning already even without further defaults (which we believe will continue!). And if preparation of a motion of censure initiated by opposition goes ahead, Victor Ponta announced his party will support. So we might see changes even before 2019/2020 official elections. #HopeForRomania ;)

Norwegian Funds available

Small and medium sized companies in Romania have another source of funding available: the SMEs Growth Romania has just launched and has 45 million Euro to spend on great projects that have the potential to increased competitiveness for Romanian enterprises.

As per their own definition, SMEs Growth Romania is a business development programme aiming to increase value creation and sustainable growth in the Romanian business sector. The Programme is part of EEA and Norway Grants 2014–2021 which are financing mechanisms meant to contribute to the reduction of economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area (EEA) and to the strengthening of bilateral relations between the Donor States (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and the Beneficiary States (Romania in this case).

Within the broader program, Innovation Norway has a special line of financing in excess of 21 million EUR, focused on:

1. green industry innovation (ecology)
2. blue growth (maritime projects)
3. ICT (technology)

Applications for grants between EUR 50k and EUR 2M can be made until November 1st. Have a look at the call for proposals and decide for yourself. Plenty of time to do so.

iCEE Fest, 7th edition

Last year this time we introduced you to iCEE fest, an important regional digital & tech initiative founded in 2012. This year the event will take place during June 14–15 in Bucharest, and covers a lot of things (see also the 2018 agenda here):

• 200 experts in disruption by digital & technology presenting during the event on 6 stages
• Topics are inclusive for everyone with an interest in tech & digital: VR/AR, adtech, fintech, blockchain, e-commerce, startups, comedy (yes!), investments, democracy (yes!), advertising and the list can go on
• A special trek focused on healthcare (iCEE.Health), which presumably is the only healthcare innovation event in Europe affiliated to the Everyone Included™ initiative, born at Stanford Medicine X
• Loads of webinars and e-content via iCEE.academy
• Entrepreneurs pitching their ideas and getting funded during iCEE Fest

If you are interested to read more about the 2017 edition, see this presentation here. More than 3.300 participants from 18 countries attended, as per organizer’s report.

Prices are around 300 Eur for the 2 days event, but if you register before end of May there are some promotions available for acquisition of 2 tickets and the like. It seems like a good deal to us.

Roland Garros 2018

In case you didn’t know already, the French Open, also called Roland-Garros, is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France. The venue is named after the French aviator Roland Garros.

The women’s tournament is exciting for Romania, as we have 6 players included … one of which is world’s #1 Simona Halep. A nice story of who Simona is and what is she up to at Roland Garros can be found here and here. WTA even created a 15 minute trailer about Simona, a fighter who missed the French Open finals 3 times already, but decided to never settle.