March 14, 2016 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 14.03.2016, 12:30

Romania’s Higher Defence Council is to convene in Bucharest on
Tuesday for its half-yearly session presided by the country’s head of state
Klaus Iohannis. High on the agenda is the stage of a programme on the
transformation of the Romanian army by the year 2027 and even beyond. Aspects
related to illegal migration at European level are also to be discussed along
with measures to contain illegal deforestation in Romania.

Diplomatic sources in Bucharest have announced that a serious car
crash took place in Turkey on Monday involving a minibus with 16 Romanian
tourists. Two of the passengers are reported to have been killed in the crash,
while the rest 14 have been admitted to hospital for treatment. Road accidents
involving Romanian citizens have taken place in various European countries in
recent years. The most serious took place in Montenegro in 2013, when a bus
with Romanians fell off a bridge killing 18 on board and wounding 29.

The International Monetary Fund recommends
that Romania postpone the fiscal relaxation measures due to come into effect in
2017, so that it may reach a budget deficit of 2% of the GDP, the head of the
IMF mission in Romania, Reza Baqir said at the end of the mission’s annual
evaluation of the Romanian economy. The VAT dropped from 24% to 20% at the
beginning of this year and a new cut, bringing the tax down to 19%, is planned
for 2017. According to the IMF, postponing the next VAT cut and the other
facilities envisaged for the next year would generate 0.75 GDP points in savings.
The IMF has also called for improving spending discipline and fiscal
administration this year, also recommending the Romanian authorities to quickly
pass the right legislation for improving corporate governance in state-owned
companies and make a list with the potential privatizations and stock exchange
listing. Last but not least, the IMF representatives have hailed Romania’s
anti-corruption efforts urging Bucharest to continue them.

UN-led peace negotiations resumed in Geneva on Monday with a view to
finding a political solution to the Syrian conflict. Meanwhile the rebels
insist that president Bashar al-Assad step down, a scenario dismissed by the
power in Damascus. 5 years have passed since the outbreak of anti-government
violence in Syria, which has so far killed 250,000 people. The war also
resulted in one of the worst humanitarian crises after the Second World War.
Half of Syria’s population has fled the country. We recall that a ceasefire
between Government forces and rebel militias came into force on February
27.