December 5, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news.
România Internațional, 05.12.2014, 12:00
Representatives of the Romanian Finance Ministry are today holding negotiations in Bucharest with experts of the international financial institutions on a budget deficit of 1.4% of the GDP for 2015. Issues like allotting an additional 0.2 to 0.3% of the GDP to the army and some extra amounts to co-finance the European funds will be negotiated separately, minister delegate for the budget, Darius Valcov, has explained. According to Valcov, following the budget surplas at year-end, authorities plan to increase investment in 2015 by about 2.25 billion euros, from European and local funds.
Hundreds of trade unionists from the food industry have protested today in Bucharest against the Government’s refusal to cut the VAT from 24% to 5% for meat and meat derived products as of January 1, 2015. The campaign to reduce the VAT for this products was initiated by companies in the field in April this year, when 200 thousand Romanians signed a petition in this respect. The document said that a VAT of 24% means a 50% fiscal evasion and the meat industry is faced with bankruptcy.
Romanian for min Bogdan Aurescu met on Thursday with the US secretary of State John Kery ahead of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel, Switzerland. On this occasion, Minister Aurescu reiterated Romania’s commitment to developing the Strategic Partnership with the US as central pillar of Bucharest’s foreign policy. Aurescu invited Kerry to pay an official visit to Bucharest next year, to celebrate 135 years since the diplomatic relations between the two countries were established.
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution that firmly condemns Russia’s actions against its neighbours, the Chisinau media reports. The resolution criticises what it calls Russia’s political, economic and military aggression against Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova and “the continuing violation of their sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.” The US Congress urges Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine Georgia and Moldova and calls on president Barack Obama to grant Ukraine military help.
In Chisinau, the three pro European parties of the current goverment coalition are discussing the future government program. Each party has nominated its representatives who will draw up the new government program, whose clear priority is Moldova’s EU integration. In Sunday’s elections, the Liberal Democrats, Democrats and Liberals, who are currently allied to rule, got 55 of the 101 seats in the unicameral legislative body. The Chisinau government hopes to gain the status of European Union candidate country in 2017, becoming a member in 2020.
Romania will take over the presidency of the International Alliance for the Memory of the Holocaust in 2016, the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest announced. The decision was taken by the 31 members states of the organisation at a meeting in Manchester. The Foreign Minister has stated it will continue to support any initiative aimed at combating anti-Semitism and intolerance. The International Alliance for the Memory of the Holocaust, is an intergovernmental organisation set up in 1998 at the initiative of the Swedish PM Goran Persson. Romania has been a member of this body since 2004.
