October 21, 2014 UPDATE
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România Internațional, 21.10.2014, 00:05
Attending a two-day meeting on economic development in South-East Europe organised by the British publication The Economist in Bucharest, the former PMs of Italy, Enrico Letta, and Greece, Georgios Papandreou, emphasised the key role Romania may play in the region. On the first day of the meeting, attended by a large number of specialists and business people, representatives of “The Economist Intelligence Unit” said the region’s prospects for growth remain positive, but the recovery process continues to be difficult. On Tuesday, the last day of the meeting, the National Bank governor Mugur Isarescu mentioned that the Romanian banking system has a comfortable capitalisation rate, above the one reported before the start of the economic crisis.
Ukraine has asked for an additional loan of 2 billion euros from the EU. Kiev is to pay this amount to Moscow by the end of October for already supplied natural gas, as a prerequisite for Russia to resume gas deliveries to the former Soviet republic, the European Commission announced on Tuesday. The proposal currently under consideration as part of the solution to the dispute between Kiev and Moscow involves the payment of 3.1 billion US dollars in Ukraine’s debt to Russia. In exchange, Gazprom undertakes to supply 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Ukraine, for 385 US dollars per thousand cubic meters. The presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko respectively, had a phone conversation on Tuesday, after last week they reached an agreement in principle on the deliveries of Russian gas, so as to prevent leaving many EU countries without gas supplies this winter.
