Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis has nominated Mihai
\nRazvan Ungureanu as director of the Foreign Intelligence Service. A historian
\nby profession, the latter held that position over 2007-2012 when Traian Basescu
\nwas president. Mihai Razvan Ungureanu was foreign minister between 2004 and
\n2007 and prime minister for three months in the first half of 2012. The post of
\ndirector of the Foreign Intelligence Service has been vacant since Teodor
\nMelescanu resigned last autumn. According to the Constitution, president
\nIohannis has let the presidents of the two Parliament chambers know about the
\nnomination. The Parliament is going to make a decision in this respect.<\/p>\n
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Romanian deputies are today debating and voting on
\nthe new draft Fiscal Code and the draft Fiscal Procedure Code, which are
\nsupposed to take effect on January 1st 2016. The Chamber of Deputies is the
\ndecision-making forum. The Draft Fiscal Code on Monday was unanimously passed
\nby the Budget-Finance Committee. One of the main measures of the new Code is
\nthe slash of the VAT from 24 to 19% as of January 1st 2016. The new
\nFiscal Code also provides for a cut in the special building tax, the scrapping
\nof the excise on fuels and of the 16% tax on dividend incomes as from January 1st
\n2016. Also today, the Law on Parliamentary Elections is going to be debated and
\nvoted on in the Chamber of Deputies. Basically, the law provides for the return
\nto the proportional voting on lists and the maintenance of the 5% electoral
\nthreshold, also establishing norms of the MPs’ representation per number of
\ncitizens. The Chamber of Deputies is the decision-making forum in that case
\ntoo.<\/p>\n
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Romanian Defence Minister Mircea Dusa is attending
\nthe NATO defence ministers’ meeting under way in Brussels until Thursday. High
\non the agenda are the new security challenges, particularly regarding the
\nsituation in Ukraine, after Washington has announced it will preventively
\ndeploy heavy weaponry in Central and East European countries. On the sidelines
\nof the meeting, Mircea Dusa on Tuesday met Viorel Cibotaru, his counterpart of
\nthe Republic of Moldova with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population. The
\ntwo ministers addressed Romanian-Moldovan military cooperation. Referring to
\nNATO’s aid package for the consolidation of Moldova’s defence capabilities,
\nDusa said that it was an important political signal of NATO’s commitment to
\nsupporting the Moldovan authorities’ efforts for consolidating national
\nsecurity and defence. The aid programme, also benefiting Georgia and Jordan,
\nprovides for the reforming and upgrading of the defence structures and aid for
\nthe reevaluation of the military doctrine.<\/p>\n
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The visiting head of the British Secret Intelligence
\nService Alex Younger on Tuesday was received by president Klaus Iohannis and
\ninterim Prime Minister Gabriel Oprea. The talks focused on issues related to
\nregional security in the Black Sea area included, the efforts for fighting
\nterrorism and the strategic partnership between Romania and Great Britain. Alex
\nYounger also had talks with the director of the Romanian Intelligence Service,
\nEduard Hellvig on the prospects of developing the partnership between the two
\nservices, with special emphasis on fighting terrorism. A former military, Alex
\nYounger was named as head of the Secret Intelligence Service of Great Britain -
\nMI6 in November 2014.<\/p>\n
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In Moscow, the deputy prime minister of the Republic
\nof Moldova, Victor Osipov and Russian deputy prime minister, Dmitri Rogozin
\ntoday have talks on the economic crisis in Transdniestr, a pro-Russian
\nbreakaway region in the East of Moldova and on the issue of Russian troops in
\nthat region. The meeting takes place against the backdrop of the increasingly
\ntense situation in Transdniestr after Ukraine has denounced several treaties of
\nmilitary cooperation with Russia and of a serious economic crisis in the
\nregion. Since the beginning of June, Russian troops have conducted combat
\nexercises in Transdniestr. Subsequently, also in June, the Ukrainian
\nauthorities announced they intended to deploy anti-aircraft missiles in Odessa,
\nat the border with Transdniestr. Transdniestr came out of Moldova’s authority
\nin 1992, in the wake of a conflict that left hundreds of dead.<\/p>\n
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\n
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In Brussels, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is
\ntoday meeting the president of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker,
\nthe president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi and the IMF director,
\nChristine Lagarde, says a press release of the Greek government quoted by FP.
\nOn the occasion of a special summit of the Euro zone heads of state and
\ngovernment, Greece on Monday spelled out more proposals on savings worth 8
\nbillion Euros in 2015 and 2016, designed to disburse the foreign bailout aid.
\nThe Euro zone finance ministers are today meeting to assess the Greek proposals
\nand are going to inform the EU heads of state and government about their
\ndecision; the EU summit is due in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. If Greece
\nfails to reach an agreement with its lenders until June 30th when
\nthe present financial assistance expires, it risks defaulting and leaving the
\nEuro zone.<\/p>\n
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\n
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\nThe
\nwinners of RRIs’ contest Govora Spa, a healing oasis, Beate Hansen and her
\nmother, Ursula Hansen of Germany arrived in Romania on Tuesday. They will stay
\nin the Palace Hotel in Govora Spa for 8 days, all inclusive and will undergo
\nspa treatment. Beate and Ursula Hansen will also visit the main cultural and
\nhistorical attractions in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of local and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":100004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[28877],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-100299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n