October 27, 2015

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Newsroom, 27.10.2015, 12:00

Romania is participating in the EU states’ collective effort in order to manage the refugee crisis even if it is neither a transit country, nor a final destination for the refugee waves, said the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis after participating in Brussels in the meeting regarding the migrants’ flows in the Western Balkans area. The Romanian president promised support and a better cooperation with the countries directly facing the crisis as well as an increased involvement in the Frontex actions. Romania is, after Germany, the biggest contributor to the European agency for the management of operational cooperation and external borders of the EU member states, president Iohannis pointed out. The emergency meeting held Sunday in Brussels was attended by leaders of the EU, heads of state and government from 8 EU states, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia, and from another three states that do not belong to the community bloc, namely Albania, Macedonia and Serbia.

The main opposition party in Romania, the National Liberal Party, has today tabled a simple motion with the Senate against the deputy prime minister and interior minister, Gabriel Oprea, one week after the tragic accident that killed a policeman that was part of his official motorcade. The document entitled “Gabriel Oprea dismissed for contempt, arrogance, abuse and disdain in exercising his public function” is signed by 49 Liberal and non-affiliated deputies. They ask for the resignation of the interior minister because of the way in which the Interior Ministry has managed the situation. On Monday the Romanian president called on Gabriel Oprea to resign following the flawed manner in which the ministry communicated on the issue. The interior minister Oprea said he would not resign.

The Romanian government is discussing today a series of changes to the Fiscal Code. The new changes might come into force as of January 1st 2016 and are aimed at reducing the VAT for water at 9% (down from the current 24%) both for domestic and industrial consumption, at lowering the tax on dividends from 16% to 5% and at increasing the threshold for the registration of micro-enterprises to 100 thousand euros. Also the government will exempt university education institutions from paying the income tax, the measure benefiting at present only the higher secondary education system. Also today the ministers intend to approve the legislative package on public procurement that will be forwarded to Parliament for debate. The government believes that by passing these public procurement laws they will be able to solve the problem of infrastructure in Romania.

The speaker of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, Valeriu Zgonea, is paying a 2-day visit to Washington, as of today, at the invitation of the president of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare. The parliamentary delegation headed by Valeriu Zgonea is participating in the 3rd edition of the Parliamentary Forum on Intelligence – Security. The event is aimed at continuing the debates on information security started at the previous editions as well as on fighting the funding of the terrorist activities of the Islamic State and on information policies. Valeriu Zgonea will also meet with a series of American high officials.

The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number two in the world, will today be taking on WTA fourth-seeded Maria Sarapova of Russia in her second game of the WTA finals in Singapore. In her debut game on Sunday Halep outperformed Italian Flavia Pennetta in two sets six-nil, six-three, while Sharapova obtained a three-set win against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland. Sports papers in Romania have highlighted the importance of this game for Halep, who hasn’t scored any victory so far over Sharapova. If Halep wins she’ll secure a place in the semifinals of this Asian tournament.