Welcome to Romania

To celebrate its official launch in the country, TAXEDU draws a high-profile crowd in Bucharest

Teachers and students in Romania joined government officials, MS tax experts and European Commission representatives in Bucharest on December 12 to celebrate the country’s launch of the European pilot project TAXEDU.

More than 150 people attended the event, which was hosted at the headquarters of the National Bank of Romania (one of the country’s most prominent buildings). No doubt a fitting scene for such an important event.

According to organisers, the launch event aimed to highlight the importance of bringing digital tax education to young people in Romania, as part of a wider economic and financial education programme for Romanian citizens.

The governor of Romania’s National Bank, Mugur Isărescu, together with Oana Iacob, the finance ministry’s state secretary, and the minister of education,  Ecaterina Andronescu, delivered keynote speeches.

Representatives of the country’s Financial Supervision Authority and the Romanian Banks Association also addressed the audience. Together, they emphasised TAXEDU’s importance and the opportunity it presents for Romania to educate young people about tax.

The event continued with engaging presentations providing useful information about TAXEDU, highlighting its key features. Birgit Reiser, who heads the Customs and Taxation Training sector of the European Commission, kicked off by congratulating Romania for actively investing in launching tax education for Romanian youngsters. She was followed by Fiscalis Romanian Tax Expert Silvia Cristescu, who explained how this EU initiative could be brought to schools to improve youth’s perception on taxation.

The online digital platform was developed* in 22 EU languages with e-learning resources, videos and educational information for European youngsters with an active support of National Tax Administrations. The project was funded by the European Parliament and led by the European Commission (Directorate General for Taxation and Customs).

Alexandru Coşbuc from Siveco stressed how the portal was built to teach intelligently and Carmen Elena Lupea from INTRSAOFT International presented the goals of the Communication Strategy’s campaign, under the slogan “Tax builds my future”. These goals are to attract target groups to the platform, entice them to use the educational material and challenge them to download and play the game TAXLANDIA.

Finally, Rosen Bacharov from the Bulgarian Tax Administration offered another perspective by presenting best practices in Bulgaria regarding tax education.

The event ended on a high note with attendees engaging in insightful discussions which explored TAXEDU. Organisers described the launch as a huge success, marking the beginning of tax education for young people in Romania.

*Portal development by a consortium consisting of SIVECO Romania and INTRASOFT International