July 25, 2019

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 25.07.2019, 14:00

SMEs – Half of Romania’s SMEs are experiencing financial
difficulties, considering 10% have declared bankruptcy and 40% have restricted
their activity in the last two years, Ovidiu Nicolescu, honorary president of
the National Council for Romanian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises said
earlier today. Attending the official launch of the White Charter of SMEs,
Nicolescu recalled these enterprises account for over 50% of the country’s GDP,
also making a significant contribution to exports. Ovidiu Nicolescu pointed out
the main difficulties have to do with personnel shortage, bureaucracy and
inflation. Attending the event was Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, who said the
Government’s public policies are inefficient in the absence of sustained
cooperation with employers’ associations and entrepreneurs, irrespective of
where the capital is coming from. The Romanian official went on to say that
entrepreneurs can contribute innovation and competitiveness, and the Government
keeps funding programmes such as Start-up Nation and encouraging exports. The
Prime Minister recalled some of the measures adopted to deal with labor market
shortages, such as increasing the minimum wage, tax benefits and encouraging
vocational qualification.

PROSECUTORS -
Daniel Horodniceanu, Catalin Borcoman and Claudiu Dumitrescu have been
nominated by Romania’s Justice Ministry for the position of European
Prosecutor. Justice Minister Ana Birchall will submit the names to the Council
of the European Union. The European Prosecutors will report to the European
Chief Prosecutor, a position Laura Codruta Kovesi, the former head of the
National Anticorruption Directorate, is vying for. The European Prosecutor’s
Office will specialize in combating fraud related to VAT and community funds
and is set to begin its activity by the end of next year. So far, 20 member
states have signed off on the project, including Romania. The Prosecutor’s
Office will investigate, indict and prosecute cases of embezzlement of
structural funds, tax evasion and other crimes infringing on the EU’s financial
interests. The institution will be headquartered in Luxemburg. According to the
European Commission, every year public authorities in Europe incur VAT-related
losses tantamount to some 50 billion euros.

HEAT WAVE – A new
heat wave is affecting Western Europe, the second within less than a month.
Record-high temperatures were reported on Wednesday in Belgium, the
Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg and Switzerland. In Western Germany
temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius, while highs in the Netherlands went
up to 39.2 degrees. Some bridges in Amsterdam and Haarlem are expanding. The
municipality is spraying water over them to cool them down. In Belgium a code
red alert against extreme heat was declared, after temperatures reached 39.9
degrees in the northeast. Meteorologists say Paris may see an all-time high
today, above the 40.4 degrees mark, reported in 1947, as temperatures may go as
high as 43 degrees. The temperature record was exceeded in Great Britain as
well, over 38.5 degrees.

INDICTMENT – The
former treasurer of the Social-Democratic Party, Mircea Draghici, has been
indicted by anticorruption prosecutors in an embezzlement case. Draghici
allegedly pocketed 380,000 euros in subsidies disbursed by the Permanent
Election Authority. Prosecutors have decided to splat the cause in the case of
the former chief of the Permanent Election Authority, Daniel Barbu, who is
being prosecuted for failing to monitor the subsidies allocated to political
parties and for halting ongoing inspections. According to prosecutors, the
Social-Democratic Party tasked Draghici with managing the party’s assets and
funds. Draghici allegedly pocketed the money pursuant to signing a real estate
rental contract. The subsidized money was given to Draghici to cover the
partial payment accounting for two thirds of a building.

UK – British
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair his first Cabinet meeting today before
addressing Parliament. The key positions in the British Government will be held
as Sajid Javid, who will be taking over as Finance Minister, Dominic Raab as
Foreign Minister, Priti Patel as Interior Minister and Jeremy Hunt as Defense
Minister. Overall 17 ministers and state secretaries from the former May
Cabinet were dismissed or have resigned, among them Justice Minister David
Gauke, Finance Minister Philip Hammond and Minister for International
Development, Rory Stewart.

FOOTBALL -
Romanian football champions CFR Cluj on Wednesday defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv of
Israel 1-nil on home turf in the first leg of the Champions League second
preliminary round. If it advances to the third round, CFR Cluj will play either
Celtic Glasgow of Scotland or Estonia’s Nomme Kalju. Today, in the first leg of
Europa League, Romanian Cup winners Viitorul Constanta are taking on KAA Gent
of Belgium, while vice-champions FCSB are going up against FC Alashkert of
Armenia. Finally, CSU Craiova is playing Honved Budapest. The return legs are
scheduled for next week. In the next round, Viitorul will play the winner
between AEK Larnaca of Cyprus or Levski Sofia of Bulgaria, FCSB will play
either Mlada Boleslav of the Czech Republic or Ordabasy Shymkent of Kazakhstan,
while Craiova will take on AEK Athens of Greece.

(Translated by V.
Palcu)