December 31, 2015

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 31.12.2015, 12:00

The year 2016 will bring tax cuts to Romanians. As of January 1st the VAT will drop from 24% to 20% and the tax on dividends from 16% to 5%. Also, employers who have more employees will pay income taxes of 1% while those who don’t have employees will pay income taxes of 3%. All these measures account for almost 2.2 billion euros from the budget, which the Government hopes to partly recuperate from the economic growth expected in 2016. In another development, the Government decided to raise the minimum salary as of May 1st 2016.

More than 37 thousand policemen, firefighters and gendarmes have been mobilized for the last day of the year to enforce public order at the events to be organized on the New Year’s Eve across Romania. According to a communiqué of the Romanian Police, on the New Year’s Eve 162 large-scale public events will be organized across Romania, in 40 counties and the capital Bucharest. As many as 200 thousand people are expected to participate in these events. Until January 3rd the troops of the Special Intervention and Action Service will be on duty in the crowded areas of Bucharest and other big cities of Romania, in airports, marketplaces as well as at the events organized on the New Year’s Eve.

Concern over the threat of terrorist attacks has led to the implementation of enhanced security measures all over the world on the occasion of the festivities marking the start of the new year 2016. The fireworks shows on the New Year’s Eve in Paris and Brussels have been canceled out of security reasons. In Brussels all public festivities have been annulled after two people suspected of masterminding a terrorist attack have been apprehended. In Turkey two people who were planning attacks in Ankara have been arrested. Security measures have also been tightened in Vienna, Dhaka and Bangladesh. The authorities in the American cities of New York, Los Angeles and Washington increased security ahead of the New Year festivities.

The Romanian tennis players Irina Begu, Monica Niculescu, Andreea Mitu and Patricia Tig will participate in the Shenzhen tournament, China, scheduled to take place between January 3rd and 9th. The tournament has prizes up for grabs worth more than 400 thousand dollars. According to organizers, Begu and Niculescu will be among the tournament’s top seeds, Andreea Mitu will also be on the main table while Patricia Tig will play in the qualifiers. The best known Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, who won the Shenzhen tournament in 2015, will be top seeded in the Brisbane tournament (Australia) which will be unfolding in the same period. The Brisbane tournament has prizes worth almost 900 thousand dollars.

The victims of the fire at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest were commemorated two months after the tragedy. Around 300 people brought flowers and lit candles in front of the club. The fire killed 63 people and wounded more than 150. According to data provided by the Healthcare Ministry, 23 people are still in hospital in Bucharest and abroad. In another development, the three owners of the Colectiv club were placed under home arrest. Prosecutors with the General Prosecutor’s Office seized the assets of the three owners, who were accused of manslaughter and serious bodily injury alongside another three people who were in charge of the fireworks show on the night of October 30 at the Colectiv Club.

German chancellor Angela Merkel used her New Year’s speech to urge Germans to see the record influx of refugees to Germany as an opportunity for the future, drawing attention to those ‘full of hatred’ who want to exclude the others. Angela Merkel said she was persuaded that the big task of today, if understood correctly, namely that of receiving and integrating so many people, is a chance for tomorrow. The German chancellor has been contested both in Europe and in Germany, by her own Conservative party, for her openness policy. According to the daily Saechsische Zeitung, in 2015 Germany received around 1.1 million migrants, 5 times more than in 2014. The Government will publish the official statistics in early January.