Dragnea Wants Party Congress Of December 20 To Reconfirm Ponta As Party Leader
Liviu Dragnea wants the Social Democratic Party to hold a congress meeting on December 20 despite the fact that local party leaders claim they want Victor Ponta to remain party president after losing the presidential election.
Dragnea no longer wants to wait until spring for a party congress and unexpectedly said Sunday evening a party congress would be welcome before the holidays, and proposed December 20. (Adevarul)
Bogdan Aurescu Proposed For Foreign Minister
The government proposed state secretary Bogdan Aurescu, a career diplomat, for the position of minster of Foreign Affairs.
Aurescu was a key figure in the Romania-Ukraine dispute over territory in the Black Sea, negotiations with the United States over the anti-missile shield in Romania and negotiations with Serbia regarding the country’s Romanian community.
The previously nominated Mihnea Motoc may no longer be considered for minister because his wife is a judge of the ECHR and the minister position would make Motoc the supervisor of Romania’s government agent to the ECHR. (Evenimentul Zilei)
Romania To Have A Budget Of RON240B In 2015 If It Collects Revenue Of 33% Of GDP
With a gross domestic product of RON709.7 billion, estimated by the Prognosis Commission, and revenues of 33% of GDP, the government will have a state budget of RON235-240 billion next year.
This would be the largest budget for Romania in the past 25 years.
Other key-figures estimated by the Prognosis Commission for 2015 are an average exchange rate of RON4.42 to the euro, annual inflation of 2.2%, an average net salary of RON1,733, a 6.9% unemployment rate and economic growth of 2.5%. (Adevarul)
Heating Bills Could Rise By Nearly 40% As Of January, Gas Prices Remain Unchanged
Although the price of natural gas will not increase in the following period, heating bills for household consumers connected to the centralized heating system may see a considerable increase.
All non-household consumers will have to buy their natural gas from the deregulated market as of January 1, 2015. Thermal power plants that supply heat to household consumers are part of that category.
However, the energy regulator ANRE has notified the government and asked for these power plants to be removed from categories of consumers on the deregulated market.
Unless the measure is adopted, heating prices for household consumers are expected to rise 28% to 38%. Gas on the deregulated market is more expensive than on the regulated market and the extra cost for power plants providing heat would be transferred onto household consumers in heating bills. (Puterea)
Romania To Complete 2015 Draft Budget By Friday, Send It To Parliament Dec 10
Romania’s Minster-delegate for the budget Darius Valcov on Monday said the draft state budget for 2015 will be completed by Friday, discussed with officials of the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund and then sent to the Parliament for approval on December 10.
Valcov said the draft budget provides no tax increases, adding the government is even considering adopting some fiscal relaxation measures.
”After the upcoming negotiations with the IMF officials, we may (be thinking about lowering the value added tax, e.n.) for other products, but we may as well consider the measure in general,” said Valcov. (Evenimentul Zilei)
Health Ministry Starts Distributing Flu Vaccine, Has Insufficient Doses
The Health ministry has started distributing anti-flu vaccine, a few weeks later than planned, and lacks sufficient doses to cover at-risk patients.
The “luckiest” of family physicians received maximum ten doses of vaccine when they have hundreds of patients with chronic illnesses.
“Art the end of last week, we were told to go to public health departments and pick up the vaccine to primarily vaccinate patients with chronic illnesses. When we got there, we were unpleasantly surprised to see we would get very few doses,” doctors told newspaper Adevarul.(Adevarul)