January 2, 2025
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 02.01.2025, 13:55
Cuts. In Romania, the new year has come with new price hikes and a series of tax measures aimed at cutting budget spending. The latter include a government emergency order to freeze pensions and budget sector salaries, as well as child allowances. A freeze on new hires in the public sector is also in place, and a number of public agencies and institutions will be dismantled or merged. The emergency order also eliminates tax reliefs for the employees in the IT, constructions, agriculture and food industry sectors. The new order also raises dividend tax from 8 to 10% and introduces a new tax on special constructions. The ceiling for small enterprises will be reduced from 500,000 euros at present to 250,000 euros. Students will benefit from discounts on railways tickets only on journeys from home to university.
Drugs. More than 1,600 people were detained and 1,400 others held in temporary custody as part of actions carried out by the Romanian police last year to combat drug trafficking. The Romanian Police said it conducted over 3,000 home searches and dismantled 43 organised crime groups numbering hundreds of members. More than 1,000 kilograms of risk and high-risk drugs and more than 1.2 million pills were seized.
Trade. German Conservative leader Friedrich Merz, who is tipped to succeed Olaf Scholz as chancellor, told the German news agency dpa that he would support a new attempt at talks on a free trade exchange with the United States, in response to the tougher trade conditions. Europe’s economy will face difficult conditions under Donald Trump’s administration, said Merz in an interview published on Thursday, but the response of Germany and of the entire Europe should be to restore competitiveness, not imposing tariffs. A new Euro-American initiative on free trade could prevent a dangerous spiral of tariff hikes, he added. Trump, who is taking over about a month before federal elections in Germany, suspended talks on a trade exchange between the European Union and the US during his first term in office and opened a series of trade disputes with the EU.
Attack. Twelve persons, including two children, were killed by a man who carried out an armed attack in a restaurant in the south of Montenegro, said the prosecutor in charge of the case, quoted by France Presse. The perpetrator then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head while surrounded by the police. The police ruled out the theory of a clash between organised crime groups and said the weapons used are illegal. The government ordered a three-day period of mourning.
Weather. An orange code warning for blizzard is in place until Friday morning in the mountain regions in ten counties in Romania, as well as two yellow code alerts for wind in place in the centre, north-west, east and south. In the regions in question, wind speeds are expected to pass 110-120 km/hour, and strong blizzards and low visibility of under 50 metres are forecast. Temperatures today are higher than usual at this time of the year, with highs between 4 and 14 degrees Celsius and 9 degrees in Bucharest at noon.
