August 23, 2015 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 23.08.2015, 12:15
The Romanian Senate is meeting Monday in an extraordinary session to debate and vote on president Klaus Iohannis’ request for re-examination of the fiscal code bill. The changes to be made to the draft code were discussed Thursday by the representatives of the parliamentary parties. Thus the VAT will be reduced to 20% as of January 2016 and to 19% in 2017. Moreover the elimination of the extra excise duty on fuels was postponed until January 1st 2017. Following the application of these provisions the budget deficit will stand at 2%, says the finance minister Eugen Teodorovici. In turn the Romanian prime minister gave assurances that the new Fiscal Code was sustainable and the loss from the state budget following the cut of the VAT could be covered by a better collection of taxes, which is estimated at 10 billion lei. In July President Klaus Iohannis sent the new fiscal code bill back to Parliament for re-examination, claiming that its application was not sustainable.
The Fitch rating agency has reconfirmed for the 2nd time this year Romania’s rating based on the ‘very good’ situation of public finances, as compared to other states in the region. The economic growth estimate for the next 3 years is also positive, 3.5% against the previous estimate of 2.8%. According to Fitch, the positive developments will be sustained by domestic demand, boosted by fiscal relaxation at the level of private consumption, as well as by a return of investors in the private sector. The agency also mentions that the banking sector in Romania is stable, despite the volatility of the external environment, the Romanian banks being well capitalized. In July, Moody’s rating agency estimated that the increase in competitiveness, the reduction of macro-economic imbalances and the recovery of the labour market and internal consumption would allow Romania to report an average growth of almost 3% in the coming years.
The big trophy of the “Anonimul” International Independent Film Festival hosted by the village of Sfantu Gheorghe in the Danube Delta was granted Saturday to the Romanian production “The World is mine”, the debut feature film of Nicolae Constantin Tanase. The main character is a 16-year-old girl who lives in a small town on the sea shore where influence and money rule. The young woman believes though that her dreams deserve any sacrifice and she will do everything in her power to make them come true. 5 other international productions competed for the big trophy. In the shorts section the audience voted for “Listen”, a Danish-Finish co-production, as best foreign film. The prize for best Romanian short went to the short “0068 Sniper’s Nest” directed by Radu Barbulescu.
The Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, commemorated the victims of Fascism and Communism in a message made public on Sunday. In 2011 Romania included in a law the initiative provided for in the Prague Declaration of 2008 according to which August 23rd — the day when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, which included secret provisions regarding the division of eastern Europe- should be the day for commemorating the victims of the totalitarian Nazi and communist regimes. The pact, signed by the foreign ministers of Germany and the Soviet Union, on August 23rd 1939, prepared among other things, the annexation by the Soviet Union of the Baltic States and of Bessarabia, a territory that belonged to Romania. During the Communist regime in Romania August 23rd was the country’s national day, which the then power marked as “the day of the armed antifascist and anti-imperialist revolt of 1944”.
The talks between North and South Korea meant to diffuse tension at the border between the two countries were resumed Sunday, after a first round of negotiations held on Saturday. On Friday the EU called for the “avoidance of challenges” in the Korean peninsula, one day after the exchange of artillery fire between North and South Korea along their heavily militarized border. Thursday’s fire exchange comes in the context of the joint US-South Korea military exercises which started Monday and which North Korea views as preparations for war. Tension escalated early this month when an anti-personnel mine went off in the demilitarized zone and injured 2 South-Korean soldiers. Seoul accused North Korea of placing those mines. From a technical point of view the two Koreas are at war, since the Korean War of 1950-1953 ended with a simple ceasefire agreement and not with a peace treaty.
