November 12, 2013
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Leyla Cheamil, 12.11.2013, 12:25
Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta in London today will be attending the listing of Romgaz share package on the London Stock Exchange. We recall Romgaz is Romania’s leading natural gas producer and supplier. Concurrently, Romgaz share package began trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Through the initial stock exchange offer, in late October the Romanian state sold 15% of the Romgaz share package, for more than 390 million euro. Romgaz is the second company in which the state is the majority shareholder, whose initial public offer was put on the market this year, after Nuclearoelectrica. Romgaz was included in the share-based privatization schedule made public by the Romanian Government.
European heads of state in Paris today are trying to find ways of containing youth unemployment across the European Union. French President François Hollande will be the host of the meeting, while included on the guest list are the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Durao Barroso. Representing Romania at the highest level will be the country’s president Traian Basescu. At present Europe has 26 million unemployed,nearly 6 million of whom are young people under 25. In Spain there are 1 million jobless people under 25, while France has 780,000 such people. Italy and Greece are also affected by the unemployment rate among youngsters.
Romania and Bulgaria will be denied access to the Schengen area as of January the 1st, 2014, the European Commission President Jose Manuel Durrao Barroso on Monday night told the French private TV station LCI. In an interview in September this year Barroso told the Bulgarian public radio station that the two countries complied with the Schengen accession criteria and had to be given a chance to gain their accession as soon as feasible. The two EU member states were denied Schengen accession in September 2011, at the behest of Finland and the Netherlands. The two countries delivered a pointed warning to corruption, which was allegedly rampant in Bucharest, as well as to the lack of specific action targeting organized crime in Sofia.
The Rosia Montana mining operation draft law, initiated by the Government, will be submitted to Parliament, with the latter body being entitled to taking a decision on the aforementioned law. This past Monday the special Parliamentary commission turned down the project, mainly bringing up the issue of the ecological risks the cyanide-based mining entails, of the gold deposits in the region. The Canadian contractor in Rosa Montana voiced hope that the new legislative provisions would be passed as soon as possible, so that the mining project can start in early 2014.
Romania by the end of the year is set to reach an absorption rate of European funds standing at 30 per cent, Romania’s European Funds Minister Eugen Teodorovici has told a conference in Bucharest today. Teodorovici went on to say that at present Romania has succeeded an absorption rate of 26%. The Romanian high-ranking official estimated that in 2015 the 80% earmarked funding can be exceeded. In another move, Eugen Teodorovici thought a stronger determination was required, as well as a more significant level of coherence in drawing European funds.
