August 23, 2013
For a roundup of domestic and international news, click here.
Ştefan Stoica, 23.08.2013, 12:05
The Romanian Ministry of Economy has submitted to the European Commission a pre-notification on the amendments to the legislation in the field of renewable energy, but it has not received any request from Brussels regarding the investors’ complaint. The Romanian government has decided to postpone until March 2017 the granting of green certificates for hydropower and solar stations and until 2018 for wind power stations. The decision has dissatisified the energy giant CEZ, the biggest investor in renewable energy in Romania, that said it had filed a complaint to the European Commission in the wake of Romania’s decision, which might bring it losses worth as many as 66 million Euros a year. The Czech group entered the Romanian market in 2005, investing over 1 billion euros.
The Romanian make Dacia belonging to the French group Renault boasts the biggest increase in sales in Europe, despite the crisis, says the Financial Times. According to the British paper, the main strength of the Dacia cars is their price. In Great Britain for instance, a Dacia Duster car costs 9,000 pounds, nearly 4000 pounds less than rival makes cost. Renault has reported that its Romanian make provided 24% of the group’s sales in Europe in the first half of the year. In Romania, the group’s production capacity stands at 350,000 cars a year; car nr.5 million will be made at the beginning of 2014. In 2012, the Dacia plant’s activity provided 7.7% of Romania’s exports. The performance ranks Dacia first in the chart of this country’s exporting companies.
A memorial to the victims of Stalinist deportations was inaugurated on Friday in Chisinau, the capital of the ex-Soviet Republic of Moldova with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population. According to documents, over 60,000 people were deported in several waves to Siberia and Kazahstan in the 1940s and 1950s in a crackdown campaign against Romanians in Bessarabia, the historical name of the Republic of Moldova after it was occupied by the Soviet Union. The event has a symbolic significance given that in the Republic of Moldova, even after the proclamation of its independence in 1991, there were forces trying to deny the crimes of the Soviet regime.
The EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said “the international community must now act with a sense of urgency and responsibility” to end the violence in Syria. The increasing loss of life in this country and the possible use of chemical weapons makes it urgent that the international community find a political solution to the conflict. The UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon has said in Seoul that any use of chemical weapons would constitute a “crime against humanity” and urged the regime to co-operate with an immediate investigation. Russia has joined international calls for the inspectors to be given access to the site of the alleged massacre. The Russian Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov and his American counterpart John Kerry discussed the issue over the phone and said they want an objective investigation conducted by the UN. The Syrian opposition has accused the government of having used chemical weapons that killed 1,300 people near Damascus, after lots of footage with civilian victims were posted on the Internet. The Syrian government denied the allegations.
The supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi have called for mass demonstrations on “Friday of martyrs’” against the military power. FP reports that that is a test of the Brotherhood’s ability to mobilize the masses of supporters after the dismantling of their leadership and the death of hundreds of supporters of the ousted president during heavy clashes over the last week. The army and the police go ahead with the bloody crackdown on pro-Morsi protesters ; Mohamed Morsi is the first democratically elected president coming from the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi is detained in a secret place by the army, being accused of accessory to murders.
Tens of people were killed hundreads were wounded in two explosions on Friday in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. Twin car bombs exploded outside mosks at the end of the religious service on Friday. The blasts hit amid soaring tensions in Lebanon as a result of Syria’s civil war, which has sharply polarized the country along sectarian lines and between supporters and opponents of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On August 15, a car bomb rocked a Shiite stronghold of Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Beirut, also killing 27 people and wounding over 300.
Early elections will be held in the Czech Republic on October 25 and 26, the country’s president Milos Zeman announced on Friday, Reuters and Associated Press report. The ballot will end a period of political stalemate triggered by a corruption and spying scandal that unseated the previous centre-right cabinet, headed by Petr Necas. According to pinion polls the center-left Social Democrats will be the biggest party in the new parliament. The leader of the Social Democrats , Bohuslav Sobotka, told Reuters that his party could rule in a minority government supported by the Communist party or other factions in parliament. It would be the first time since the 1989 Velvet revolution that the Communist party could have a direct impact on government policies.
