Several Counties In Romania Under Yellow Code Advisory For Excessive Heat

Romanian meteorologists issued a yellow code advisory Tuesday for the counties of Dolj, Olt and Teleorman, as well as for the low area of Caras-Severin and Mehedinti Counties, where temperatures are expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius on Thursday.

The heat index, which combines air temperature and relative humidity to determine the felt air temperature, will exceed the critical threshold of 80 on relatively extended areas.

Maximum temperatures will reach 34 – 36 degrees and minimum temperatures during the night will reach over 20 degrees. (puterea.ro)

Intesa Sanpaolo, Also Present In Romania, To Close 600 Units   Intesa Sanpaolo’s acquisition of good assets of failing banks Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza is credit positive because they will increase the bank’s current client base and unlock economies of scale.   Intesa Sanpaolo might close 600 units and almost 3,900 employees could quit willingly.   Deal is credit positive for the Italian banking system as it addresses the risk of contagion, and shores up retail investors’ confidence.    Italy began winding up two failed regional banks on Sunday in a deal that could cost the state up to EUR17 billion ($19 billion) and will leave the lenders’ good assets in the hands of Intesa Sanpaolo. (gandul.info)   Antitrust: European Commission Fines Google EUR2.42B

The European Commission has fined Google EUR2.42 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules. Google has abused its market dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to another Google product, its comparison shopping service.

The company must now end the conduct within 90 days or face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference to our lives. That’s a good thing. But Google’s strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn’t just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals.

Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors.

What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation.” (romanialibera.ro)

Germany And France To Lead Post-Brexit EU In Further Integration

More EU integration is a “foregone conclusion”, and France and Germany will take the lead on post-Brexit reforms starting this year, the European Union’s second-in-command said, adding that he hoped the east-west split in the bloc would heal.

Britain’s vote to leave the EU plunged the bloc into an existential crisis a year ago and unleashed a wave of euroscepticism. But election victories for Emmanuel Macron in France and the pro-EU incumbent in the Netherlands have since given the union new hope.

“I am certainly more optimistic today than I was last year or two years ago,” Frans Timmermans, deputy head of the EU’s executive European Commission, told in an interview.

“Over the last years, rightly or wrongly, the impression was created that Germany is too dominant. So the fact that France now steps in a more assertive way is good for Europe as a whole, is good for France, and especially good for Germany.” (gandul.info)

ALDE Leaders Surprised With President Iohannis’ Prime Minister Nomination Mihai Tudose, proposed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) and designated by President Klaus Iohannis for prime minister, was 100% social democrats’ choice, ALDE Alba head, Ioan Lazar, said on Tuesday.

Asked whether social democrats made a good choice, Lazar said he did not know Tudose’s political activity.

Iohannis signed the decree appointing Tudose as prime minister.

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