November 14, 2014 UPDATE

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România Internațional, 14.11.2014, 20:15

Friday was the last day of campaign in Romania ahead of Sunday’s 2nd round of the presidential election. More than 18 million voters are expected to the polls on Sunday to elect the future president of Romania for the next 5 years. In the first round, on November 2nd, the candidate of the alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party, the Social Democrat PM Victor Ponta and the representative of the Christian Liberal Alliance, and mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Iohannis, got most of the votes. The Romanian citizens living abroad can vote in the 294 polling stations set up outside Romania. To counteract the organizational flaws reported in the first round, the authorities have taken measures to facilitate the voting process, without, however, opening further polling stations as some Romanian associations in the Diaspora had asked. On November 2nd in several polling station outside Romania, mainly in Europe, people cued for hours and did not manage to vote. On Friday evening thousands of Romanians protested in Bucharest, Cluj (in the north west), Brasov (center) and Timisoara (west) asking for fair elections on Sunday. The Romanian President Traian Basescu underlined the importance of going to the polls on Sunday.

Romania saw the highest economic growth rate in the EU in the third quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter, according to preliminary data made public on Friday by the European Statistical Office, the Eurostat. With a 1.9% economic growth rate, Romania is the first in the EU, followed by Poland (with 0.9%), the UK and Greece with 0.7% each. According to Eurostat, the economy of the Eurozone went up 0.2% after a 0.1% increase in the previous quarter, and the EU as a whole saw a 0.3% growth rate after 0.2% in the second quarter. Compared to last year, Romania’s GDP went up 3.3%, second-highest rate in the Union after Poland. On the other hand, the annual increase in the Eurozone stayed at 0.8%, whereas the GDP of the Union grew by 1.3%, the same rate as in the second quarter.

The Romanian Ministry for Finances has issued a news release stating that the institution has never put together a scenario for eliminating the flat tax system, nor has it made estimates on a possible increase of property taxes. According to the Ministry, the taxes incurred for buildings, land and vehicles will remain at their current level, unless otherwise decided by the local councils. The institution thus responded to information in the mass media according to which the Government plans to eliminate the 16% flat tax rate and to introduce progressive taxation as of 2016, as well as to rumours on the increase of local taxes by 25% starting next year and another 25% in 2016.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Moscow’s economic relations with the Republic of Moldova needed to be adjusted after this ex-Soviet Republic signed the EU Association Agreement. On Thursday the Agreement was ratified by the European Parliament, whose president, Martin Schultz, emphasised that the provisions in the document are not targeted against Russia.

The Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called for attacks against Saudi rulers and added that his self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq was expanding to five other countries in the region, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and the Saudi Kingdom. Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State, and its aircraft has taken part in raids against the extremist organisation. In Washington, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the option was considered of sending American troops to join the Iraqi forces that fight against the IS, although so far the US has only considered the training of Iraqi troops and the guarding of strategic sites far from the frontline. According to recent estimates, the IS has over 30 thousand militants, more than 2 thousand of whom have come from the West.