SMEs – Half of Romania’s SMEs are experiencing financial
\ndifficulties, considering 10% have declared bankruptcy and 40% have restricted
\ntheir activity in the last two years, Ovidiu Nicolescu, honorary president of
\nthe National Council for Romanian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises said
\nearlier today. Attending the official launch of the White Charter of SMEs,
\nNicolescu recalled these enterprises account for over 50% of the country’s GDP,
\nalso making a significant contribution to exports. Ovidiu Nicolescu pointed out
\nthe main difficulties have to do with personnel shortage, bureaucracy and
\ninflation. Attending the event was Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, who said the
\nGovernment’s public policies are inefficient in the absence of sustained
\ncooperation with employers’ associations and entrepreneurs, irrespective of
\nwhere the capital is coming from. The Romanian official went on to say that
\nentrepreneurs can contribute innovation and competitiveness, and the Government
\nkeeps funding programmes such as Start-up Nation and encouraging exports. The
\nPrime Minister recalled some of the measures adopted to deal with labor market
\nshortages, such as increasing the minimum wage, tax benefits and encouraging
\nvocational qualification.<\/p>\n
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PROSECUTORS -
\nDaniel Horodniceanu, Catalin Borcoman and Claudiu Dumitrescu have been
\nnominated by Romania’s Justice Ministry for the position of European
\nProsecutor. Justice Minister Ana Birchall will submit the names to the Council
\nof the European Union. The European Prosecutors will report to the European
\nChief Prosecutor, a position Laura Codruta Kovesi, the former head of the
\nNational Anticorruption Directorate, is vying for. The European Prosecutor’s
\nOffice will specialize in combating fraud related to VAT and community funds
\nand is set to begin its activity by the end of next year. So far, 20 member
\nstates have signed off on the project, including Romania. The Prosecutor’s
\nOffice will investigate, indict and prosecute cases of embezzlement of
\nstructural funds, tax evasion and other crimes infringing on the EU’s financial
\ninterests. The institution will be headquartered in Luxemburg. According to the
\nEuropean Commission, every year public authorities in Europe incur VAT-related
\nlosses tantamount to some 50 billion euros.<\/p>\n
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HEAT WAVE – A new
\nheat wave is affecting Western Europe, the second within less than a month.
\nRecord-high temperatures were reported on Wednesday in Belgium, the
\nNetherlands, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg and Switzerland. In Western Germany
\ntemperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius, while highs in the Netherlands went
\nup to 39.2 degrees. Some bridges in Amsterdam and Haarlem are expanding. The
\nmunicipality is spraying water over them to cool them down. In Belgium a code
\nred alert against extreme heat was declared, after temperatures reached 39.9
\ndegrees in the northeast. Meteorologists say Paris may see an all-time high
\ntoday, above the 40.4 degrees mark, reported in 1947, as temperatures may go as
\nhigh as 43 degrees. The temperature record was exceeded in Great Britain as
\nwell, over 38.5 degrees.<\/p>\n
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INDICTMENT – The
\nformer treasurer of the Social-Democratic Party, Mircea Draghici, has been
\nindicted by anticorruption prosecutors in an embezzlement case. Draghici
\nallegedly pocketed 380,000 euros in subsidies disbursed by the Permanent
\nElection Authority. Prosecutors have decided to splat the cause in the case of
\nthe former chief of the Permanent Election Authority, Daniel Barbu, who is
\nbeing prosecuted for failing to monitor the subsidies allocated to political
\nparties and for halting ongoing inspections. According to prosecutors, the
\nSocial-Democratic Party tasked Draghici with managing the party’s assets and
\nfunds. Draghici allegedly pocketed the money pursuant to signing a real estate
\nrental contract. The subsidized money was given to Draghici to cover the
\npartial payment accounting for two thirds of a building. <\/p>\n
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UK – British
\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson will chair his first Cabinet meeting today before
\naddressing Parliament. The key positions in the British Government will be held
\nas Sajid Javid, who will be taking over as Finance Minister, Dominic Raab as
\nForeign Minister, Priti Patel as Interior Minister and Jeremy Hunt as Defense
\nMinister. Overall 17 ministers and state secretaries from the former May
\nCabinet were dismissed or have resigned, among them Justice Minister David
\nGauke, Finance Minister Philip Hammond and Minister for International
\nDevelopment, Rory Stewart.<\/p>\n
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FOOTBALL -
\nRomanian football champions CFR Cluj on Wednesday defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv of
\nIsrael 1-nil on home turf in the first leg of the Champions League second
\npreliminary round. If it advances to the third round, CFR Cluj will play either
\nCeltic Glasgow of Scotland or Estonia’s Nomme Kalju. Today, in the first leg of
\nEuropa League, Romanian Cup winners Viitorul Constanta are taking on KAA Gent
\nof Belgium, while vice-champions FCSB are going up against FC Alashkert of
\nArmenia. Finally, CSU Craiova is playing Honved Budapest. The return legs are
\nscheduled for next week. In the next round, Viitorul will play the winner
\nbetween AEK Larnaca of Cyprus or Levski Sofia of Bulgaria, FCSB will play
\neither Mlada Boleslav of the Czech Republic or Ordabasy Shymkent of Kazakhstan,
\nwhile Craiova will take on AEK Athens of Greece.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by V.
\nPalcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":75903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[32581,30366,34919,34920,34635,31100,33035],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-103664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-boris-johnson","tag-europa-league","tag-european-prosecutors","tag-heat-wave-in-europe","tag-mircea-draghici","tag-smes","tag-viorica-dancila"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n