June 18, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news.
România Internațional, 18.06.2014, 11:40
The Romanian Government is today endorsing a draft law on cutting by 5% the employers’ contribution to the social security fund, starting October 1st. Although the decision has not been green-lighted by the international financial institutions, Prime Minister Victor Ponta has given assurances there is enough money for this measure to be introduced. He has also said that the implementation cost will stand at around 191 million euros in the last quarter of this year and that the Romanian state will reach all macro-economic goals established jointly with the IFM, the budget deficit goal included. The Cartel ALFA National Trade Union Confederation however, argues that the government’s measure will in fact increase the multinational companies’ net profit and will decrease contributions to the pension fund. Therefore, Cartel ALFA asks for the 5% cut to apply to employees and not to employers. The decision has been termed by the opposition as a populist one, given that 2014 is an election year in Romania.
The UN Security Council issued a statement on the Ukraine crisis, offering their condolences after the death of two Russian journalists amid the fighting in eastern Ukraine. The statement also called for an investigation into violence against reporters, and mentioned the death of an Italian photojournalist in May, the first journalist to be killed since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine. Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Perosenko have discussed over the phone about a possible ceasefire, France Press reports. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has today asked again for the ‘immediate and unconditional’ release of his observers who have been detained for several weeks now in eastern Ukraine and has accused Russia of further sending paramilitary troops and guns to eastern Ukraine.
Islamic militants have today laid siege to Iraq’s largest oil refinery, located 200 kilometres away from the capital city Baghdad, and have set oil reserves on fire, as part of their ongoing offensive across the country, France Press reports. Security forces members have been killed in the battle. The Government in Baghdad has been faced, as of June 9, with an offensive of the Sunni radical group The Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, who have taken control of some important regions in the north, east and west of the country in a bid to create an Islamic state in the area. Hossan Rohani, the President of Iran, a mostly Shia country, has today warned that Iran will do anything it takes to protect the holy Shia shrines in Iraq.
King Juan Carlos is today promulgating the organic law of abdication, which puts an end to his 39-year long reign, news agencies report. On Thursday, June 19, Prince Felipe of Asturia, heir to the Spanish throne, will be proclaimed King of Spain before the plenary sitting of Parliament.
