Foreign Direct Investment In Romania Up Slightly To EUR4.58B In 2017
Foreign direct investment stood at EUR4.58 billion in 2017 compared with EUR4.51 billion in 2016.
Of total FDI, equity stakes (including estimated net reinvestment of earnings) amounted to EUR3.82 billion, while net intra-group lending stood at EUR764 million, the data showed.
Romania’s total external debt grew by EUR1.04 billion from end-December 2016, standing at EUR93.95 billion at the end of December 2017. Long-term debt stood at EUR68.75 billion, accounting for 73.2% of the total external debt. (mediafax.ro)
Increased Social Security Contributions May Trigger Lower Child Rearing Benefits
Romania’s Finance Ministry is looking for solutions so that the increase in social security contributions will not trigger a potential decline in child rearing benefits, Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici said Tuesday.
Mothers taking a 126-day medical leave before and/or after the birth pay increased social security contributions from 10.5% in 2017 to 25% in 2018, so that the allowance for parental leave could fall proportionally, Claudia Sofianu, tax expert within EY Romania said Tuesday. (mediafax.ro)
Bill Exempting State-Owned Companies From Corporate Governance Deemed Unlawful
Romania’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled the bill exempting state-owned companies from corporate governance is unlawful.
Parliament had passed the bill in December. The piece of legislation exempts from corporate governance 94 state-owned companies, which means that their managers could have been selected according to political criteria.
The bill would have allowed other state-owned companies to be added to the list of exemptions over time.
Court President Valer Dorneanu said the bill violates the principle of Parliament bicameralism and that it contains provisions which contradict the Constitution.
Opposition party PNL had challenged the piece of legislation at the Court in late December, arguing that the bill violated the legislative procedures and granted the Government with attributions beyond the constitutional framework. (mediafax.ro)
Civil Society Reps In High Council Of Magistrates Call For Investigating Magistrates Rigging Inquiries
Victor Alistar and Romeu Chelariu, Civil Society representatives within the High Council of Magistrates, said the situation at the National Anticorruption Department in Ploiesti is “the most severe regarding the rule of law”, and requested that magistrates who allegedly rigged inquiries should be investigated.
Alistar and Chelariu said the Justice minister ought to tackle all these dysfunctions and solve this huge scandal, not only to close it through revocations. They added that system-related issued cannot be solved only by holding some people responsible, but by eliminating the sources of professional problems and complicities.
Alistar and Chelariu concluded saying there should be zero tolerance to corruption in the justice system. (mediafax.ro)