September 10, 2014

A roundup of domestic and international news

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România Internațional, 10.09.2014, 12:00

The European Commission President Elect, Jean Claude Junker has released the list of new commissioners and their jobs for the next five years. One member of the new team is the Romanian Social Democrat MEP Corina Cretu, who got the regional policy portfolio. In the coming fiver years, the Commission will focus on economic growth, energy reforms, competition and trade. Following today’s official announcement, the European Parliament special committees will hear the candidates and then will vote in plenary session. The new Commission becomes official on November 1st.

The outcomes of the application of a reduced VAT rate on bread, from 24 to 9%, are to be made public today in Bucharest, one year after the decision was made, Romanian Agriculture Minister Daniel Constantin has announced. He has also said that a decision regarding a potential extension of the measure to other sectors will be made after talks with the IMF. According to the Romanian Employers’ Association, the reduction of the VAT on bread has had positive effects. The market has seen a revival in the past year, after a year 2012 when many companies in the field went bankrupt. Also, tax evasion has been curbed to 40-45%, as compared to 70% before the implementation of the measure.

The EU is going to decide today whether fresh sanctions will be imposed on Russia. The 28 EU ambassadors are supposed to analyze an assessment of the implementation of the cease-fire agreement concluded on Friday between Kiev and the pro-Russia rebels. Sanctions should have been enforced starting on Monday, when they were officially adopted, but, according to France Presse the member states, many of which are worried about the negative effects of such sanctions on their own economies, may need more time to think about it. Austria, Sweden, Cyprus and Germany are among the countries that have stood against an immediate enforcement of the sanctions.

The situation in south-eastern Ukraine has changed radically after the enforcement of the cease-fire agreement concluded on Friday, the Ukrainian President Petro Porosenko has stated. He has said that the separatist region will remain part of Ukraine, which has made no concession with regard to its territorial integrity. A rebel spokesman, was quoted by France Presse as saying though that the separatists want their territory to be independent, not part of Ukraine. In Moscow, the president of the upper chamber of Parliament, Valentina Matvienko, has said that peace will settle in Ukraine only when the claims of the south-eastern region have been incorporated into the country’s legislation.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has today had an unannounced stop in Baghdad to support the new Iraqi government in its fight against the jihadist members of the Islamic State, which controls large areas in Iraq. The visit is part of a Middle East tour meant to consolidate a coalition made up of over 40 countries, whose goal is to fight against the hard line jihadists that control extended areas in Iraq and Syria. In Bucharest, the Romanian Foreign Ministry has hailed the formation of the new Iraqi government. The Romanian Ministry has once again firmly condemned the terrorist actions perpetrated by the Islamic State and the has reiterated Romania’s commitment to helping the Euro-Atlantic community’s anti-terror efforts.

The Romanian Radio National Orchestra is today giving a concert in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the World Summit on Media for Children. Organizers say that Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s concerts by the Romanian Orchestra are the main attraction of the seventh edition of the summit, organized for the first time in Asia. The two concerts, under the baton of Tiberiu Soare, filmed and recorded by the Kuala Lumpur public radio-television will be taken over by all members of the Asia Pacific Broadcasters’ Union, thus reaching billions of people