Moderate Earthquake In South-Eastern Romania

  A magnitude 3.6 earthquake occurred Wednesday night in Romania’s south-eastern Vrancea seismic area, at 1:34 a.m., in Buzau county.

The earthquake occurred at a depth of 142,9 kilometers and the towns closest to the epicentre of the quake are: Covasna (42 km), Intorsura Buzaului (51 km), Targu Secuiesc (55 km), and Buzau (60 km).(cotidianul.ro)

Oltchim Buys Natural Gas From Romgaz For RON33.15M

Chemical plant Oltchim in Ramnicu Valcea, under insolvency, closed a contract worth RON33.15 million with Romgaz, one of the two large natural gas producers in Romania, from which it will buy natural gas between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018.

The two companies also closed a contract worth RON24,918, for the same purpose.

On May 22, Oltchim set off a procedure to select a new natural gas supplier, after its then- supplier, Arelco Power, announced the former it might go bankrupt. (cotidianul.ro)

With New Evidence, Czechs To Keep Pushing EU On ‘Double Standards’ In Food

The Czech Republic will put more pressure on the European Union to police food standards after new tests found wide differences in the quality of ingredients that multinational food companies use in products sold to Czechs and to their western neighbours.

Agriculture Minister Marian Jurecka said on Tuesday tests carried out by his ministry and the University of Chemistry and Technology showed products in Czech supermarkets often had less of the main ingredients than the version sold in Germany, such as frozen fish sticks with less fish.

“Double standards” in food has become a hot-button issue for the EU’s eastern members. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland see it as an example of their second-class status compared with the bloc’s western members.

They are all pushing the EU executive to prevent companies from using inferior ingredients in products sold in their markets. Bulgaria has also complained. (evz.ro)

Labor Ministry Announces New Pension Bill

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) wants to bring many changes to the pension bill and 5.4 million pensioners are targeted by the new bill.

Labor Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu said the pension bill will be correctly and seriously approached.

There are 5.4 million pensioners in Romania, of whom 2.4 million have pensions below RON1,000 and 1.9 million have pensions of RON1,000 to RON2,000. (puterea.ro)

Subiecte #press review