The Bucharest City Hall may provide incentives of RON 1,500 (some EUR 330) to young couples that get married, provided that at least one of the spouses is at the first marriage and at least one of them has their domicile or residence in Bucharest.

The measure is included in a draft decision on which the Bucharest City Council will vote this Thursday, reports local News.ro.

The Bucharest Center for Integrated Community Services for Young People (CTMB) is to give the incentives to the newlyweds, based on an application and a copy of the marriage certificate filed by one of the spouses at the CTMB headquarters within 45 days from the date of marriage.

To receive this amount, at least one of the spouses has to be at her/his first marriage, at least one of them has to have her/his domicile or residence in Bucharest, and at least one has to be aged 18 to 35. If none of the spouses meets the third criteria, the incentive will be granted with the mayor’s OK.

The City Hall has thought of this measure because the number of marriages has been going down year by year, the young people postponing marriages due to the lack of several factors that would favor such a decision, and because they don’t receive any support from the state, according to the draft decision’s explanatory memorandum.

Over 133,000 marriages were recorded in Romania in 2016, some 7,700 more compared to the previous year, while the number of divorces went down by 2,700 to 28,800, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INS).

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com