Statements Of President Klaus Iohannis On Parliamentary Elections
President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday said that the future Prime Minister must come from a political party or a coalition which holds the majority in the Parliament.
“The Prime Minister must come from a party or a coalition which can convince me it will have the majority in the Parliament,” Iohannis stated.
He said he would be convinced by a coalition that it holds the arithmetic majority with a simple calculation of the mandates, adding that, in arithmetical terms, it is possible for right-wing parties to form an alliance, but they would have to see whether such a version could also be possible from a political point of view.
Asked if Dacian Ciolos is still an option for the position of PM, Iohannis said he cannot give a public answer before holding consultations with all the political parties. (Romania Libera)
ALDE To Decide On PM Proposal Only After Talks With PSD
ALDE party, led by Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and Daniel Constantin, announced that the party would come up with a PM proposal at the consultations with President Klaus Iohannis only after talks with the representatives of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
“As for the recent press information regarding the appointing of a Prime Minister from ALDE with the support of the National Liberal Party (PNL), ALDE wants to emphasize the following: the PM proposal that ALDE will support during the consultations with the President of Romania, after the validation of MPs mandates, will be decided only after the talks with PSD representatives,” ALDE said in a statement.
President Klaus Iohannis invited Wednesday the party leaders for a first round of consultations regarding the forming of the new parliament. PSD and ALDE leaders, Liviu Dragnea and Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, announced they would not show up as the meeting was unconstitutional as long as the new parliament was not validated yet.
Iohannis said, after the meeting with PNL, USR, PMP, UDMR and the representatives of minorities, that they would have another round of negotiations. (Evenimentul Zilei)
ANRE: Electricity Distribution Tariffs For Households To Fall By 3.8% To 9.04%
The regulatory committee of Romania’s energy regulator ANRE approved, in its Wednesday meeting, a decision to cut the specific tariffs for the electricity distribution service at the lessee distribution operators for 2017.
On establishing the annual value corrections and the specific distribution tariffs and in accordance with the provisions of the specific applicable methodologies, the energy regulator considers the annual revenue obtained by the distribution operator by recovering the counter-value of the electricity consumed and incorrectly registered, namely, unregistered, as well as the annual costs generated by the payment of the counter-value of these quantities of electricity.
In its Wednesday meeting, the committee approved Order no. 115/2016 amending Order no. 176/16.12.2016 of the energy regulator approving the regulated electricity tariffs applied by suppliers of last resort to household client who did not exert their right of eligibility, as well as the conditions of implementing the regulated tariffs. (Adevarul)
ANAF Announces Major Changes On Tax Payment Methods
Romanian tax authority ANAF announced that individuals would be able to pay their taxes online as of December 14, 2016.
Thus, ANAF has finalized the procedures for the public acquisition of services for accepting online payments of taxes and fees through the National Electronic Payment System. The agreement was closed with three banks: Banca Transilvania, BCR and Garanti Bank and is valid for 32 months. Taxes and fees to the state budget can also be paid cash or with the banking card in all ANAF offices, or by banking transfer or money order. (Evenimentul Zilei)
Chinese Scientists Use Gene-Editing Techniques To Fight Cancer
A group of Chinese researchers have injected for the first time a person with cells that contain genes edited using the revolutionary technique CRISPR–Cas9, according to Nature magazine.
A team led by oncologist Lu You at Sichuan University in Chengdu delivered the modified cells into a patient with aggressive lung cancer as part of a clinical trial, for the first time in the history of medicine.
“The researchers removed immune cells from the recipient’s blood and then disabled a gene in them using CRISPR–Cas9, which combines a DNA-cutting enzyme with a molecular guide that can be programmed to tell the enzyme precisely where to cut. The disabled gene codes for the protein PD-1, which normally puts the brakes on a cell’s immune response: cancers take advantage of that function to proliferate,” according to Nature magazine. (Romania Libera)