July 20, 2015

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 20.07.2015, 12:01

Leaders of the governing
coalition in Bucharest are today discussing the strategy they will pursue to
promote the new Fiscal Code, after President Klaus Iohannis sent the bill back
to Parliament, saying the measures provided for in the code were not sustainable.
The executive has several options in view regarding the application of the new
Fiscal Code: taking responsibility for it, adopting under an emergency
ordinance some of the measures stipulated in the code or calling for an
extraordinary Parliament session. The liberals are against the adoption of the new fiscal measures by
Government taking responsibility for the bill. The president’s rejecting the
fiscal code has generated a dispute between the power and the liberal
opposition.

On the 20th of July Romanian aviators celebrate the Aviation
and Air Forces’ Day. On the occasion, the Romanian Defense Minister, Mircea
Dusa, joined the Romanian pilots who are training on F16 planes in Portugal. He
has congratulated both civil and military pilots and stressed the major
contribution of the Romanian Air Forces to the mission in theaters of
operations and training exercises. President Klaus Iohannis too conveyed a
message of congratulations, saying that Romanian Aviation is ready to successfully
deal with the challenges pertaining to Romania’s status as member of NATO and
the EU.

2000 Romanian and foreign
military staff from seven NATO-member countries – Bulgaria, Greece, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, the US, Turkey – and Ukraine are participating
in the Black Sea in a fresh multinational exercise, called ‘Sea Shield 15’. The
exercise, which is due to end on July 24th, was organized by the
Romanian Naval Forces and is aimed at developing international cooperation in
the defense field. In another development, a Romanian infantry unit are
participating in the neighboring Republic of Moldova, until July 25th,
in the exercise ‘JOINT EFFORT 2015’, which has brought together some 800
soldiers from Georgia, Poland, the Republic of Moldova, Romania and the US. The
exercise is aimed at increasing the level of interoperability and improving the
planning of military operations within a multinational framework. Also, in
Ukraine, 70 solders members of the Romanian Ground Forces are part of another
multi-national exercise. Participating are some 18 hundred soldiers from 18
countries members of NATO and of the Partnership for Peace.

The Romanian Foreign
Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, is attending in Brussels today the summit of the EU
Foreign Ministers. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the main topics
on the summit’s agenda are the Iranian nuclear issue, the political situation
in Libya, the situation in Tunis and the role of the EU in the Middle East
Peace Process. The participating ministers will also discuss the stage of
implementation of the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy for
2015-2019.

Banks in Greece have reopened their doors
today, for the first time in the past three months, after the Greek Parliament
endorsed last week the austerity measures requested by the international
creditors under a fresh loan program. Some of the restrictions have been
lifted, but the cap on cash withdrawals will be maintained at 420 Euros per
week. Also starting today, the VAT in Greece is 23% , up from 13%, for a number of goods and services. In
exchange for that, Athens will get, also today, a 7 billion Euro emergency
loan, which will be used to pay back some of the debt to the Central European
Bank and the IMF, which exceeds 6 billion Euros. Under the deal between Athens
and its lenders, the Greek Parliament must approve on Wednesday another package
of measures, to be taken in the judiciary and banking sectors. In exchange for
these measures, Greece will benefit from another financial aid program, worth
over 80 billion Euros.