People’s Movement Party Registered In Court
The People’s Movement Party, backed by President Traian Basescu, was launched officially Tuesday.
The party announced its registration in court and wants to participate in elections for the European Parliament in 2014.
MP Eugen Tomac was named interim party president, while Teodor Baconschi and Cristian Petrescu will be deputies. (Adevarul)
Liberals Consider Suspending President Basescu Again
The Liberal Party is considering starting procedures to suspend President Traian Basescu again after he dismissed the party’s proposition for a new transport minister and announced he would keep Prime Minister Victor Ponta as interim for 45 days.
While liberals threaten to start suspension procedures against the president over his blunt rejection of Ovidiu Silaghi for minister, Prime Minister Ponta suggested liberals should ignore the president until next year, when his presidential term ends anyway. (Evenimentul Zilei)
New Fiscal Centers Of Romania’s Future Regions To Be Decided Soon
A government decision is expected soon setting the new fiscal centers of the country’s future administrative regions.
Rumor has it fiscal capital would be established before regional capitals.
“If local bigwigs are happy landing fiscal centers they will more easily accept the idea of not having control of the administrative center of a region,” former finance minister Gheorghe Ialomitianu told newspaper Evenimentul Zilei. (Evenimentul Zilei)
Romania Expects New Price Hikes In Energy Sector
New price hikes are expected shortly in the energy sector as Romania moves to liberalize its energy market, said Frank Hajdinjak, head of the association of utility companies ACUE, after a meeting with the IMF.
“Liberalization is expected to raise prices but there are other effects to be considered, such as fewer green certificates. We’ve discussed the green certificate issue and all players on the market agree a change is needed. There is currently no guarantee that these now postponed certificates will be bought back by 2018 and such changes don’t usually take place retroactively,” said Hajdinjak. (Curentul)
CNADNR Terminates Nadlac-Arad Highway Section Contract Due To Alpine’s Bankruptcy
Romania’s national roads authority CNADNR has terminated the contract to build the second section of the Nadlac-Arad highway after Austrian constructor Alpine Bau went bankrupt.
Alpine Bau has so far cashed 305.9 million lei (EUR69.1 million), net of VAT, for the project aimed at building the second highway section which is 84.75% completed, said CNADNR. Work on Arad-Nadlac began in the fall of 2011 and is due for completion in 2013.
Alpine Bau GmbH, Austria’s second-biggest construction firm, filed for insolvency on June 19, 2013 with liabilities of up to EUR2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) in what became the country’s biggest corporate collapse since the Second World War. (Curentul)
Over 69% Of Romanians Don’t Trust The Government
More than two thirds of Romanians (69%) don’t trust the Government, while 75% don’t trust the Parliament, according to a Eurobarometer survey conducted in May and released Tuesday.
Only 26% of Romanians said they trust the Government and 16% said the same about Parliament.
In the EU, 71% European citizens said they don’t trust their national governments and 66% don’t trust their countries’ parliament.
Romanians have a bit more confidence in the EU than the average registered in other member states. The survey found 45% of Romanians trust the European Union and 43% don’t. The average of other EU countries, including newly added Croatia, only 31% of citizens trust the EU, while around 60% have openly expressed mistrust in the Union. (Gandul)
Steaua Manager Fined For Assaulting Journalists
Steaua Bucharest general manager Mihai Stoica was fined EUR400 by a court in Skopje, Macedonia, after pleading guilty to assaulting a TV crew.
Stoica and his bodyguards assaulted a crew of Romanian TV station ProTV, injuring a female reporter. (Gandul)