EU May Reduce Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 24% By 2020
Europe is on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 24% by 2020 from 1990 levels, four percentage points higher than its goal, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said Tuesday.
In 2013, emissions by the 28-nation European Union (EU) were already more than 19% below the benchmark, it said.
“If the additional measures planned by member states are fully implemented (for curbing carbon emissions)… the overall reduction could reach 24% compared to 1990 in 2020,” it said.
“Our analysis shows that Europe is on track towards its 2020 targets,” the Copenhagen-based agency’s chief, Hans Bruyninckx, said in a statement. “Even against the backdrop of economic recession in recent years, we can see that policies and measures are working and have played a key role in reaching this interim result.” (Adevarul)
Crude Oil Fell From Over $100/Barrel To $80 In Last 4-5 Months
Brent crude fell below $86 a barrel Monday, October 27, after investment bank Goldman Sachs dramatically cut its oil price forecasts for 2015.
Oil prices have already taken a hammering in 2014, having slumped nearly 25 percentage points over the past five months. The US investment bank also cut its price forecast for West Texas Intermediate, saying it will dip to $70 between April and June in 2015. WTI was trading at $103 in June.
Oil companies in Romania, unlike those in neighboring countries, are not so keen to reduce fuel prices. Worldwide, gasoline and diesel oil prices have seen an accelerated decrease since the summer.
In Europe, the depreciation of the euro against the dollar offset, to some extent, the cheapening of the crude oil. By comparison, in Romania, the price of diesel oil produced mainly from imported crude oil, saw the lowest decrease, except for Bulgaria. (Evenimentul Zilei)
PM: Romania To Keep Flat Tax Unchanged By 2016 Parliamentary Elections
Romania will keep the 16% flat tax unchanged until the parliamentary elections in 2016 when the winners of the elections will further decide on the issue, Prime Minister Victor Ponta stated Tuesday.
Ponta attended the 23rd edition of the “National Top of Private Companies in Romania -TOP 2013″.
The PM reiterated the idea that taxes are likely to stay unchanged in 2015, adding that those already adopted or under debate are included in the fiscal-budgetary policies already approved with international organizations. (Puterea)
Romania’s Budget Turns To Surplus After First 9 Months
Romania’s government budget turned to surplus at the end of September, as spending fell in the first nine months, mainly due to a dive in public investments.
After the first three quarters, the budget recorded a surplus of 0.06% of the projected gross domestic product for this year, the Finance Ministry said Monday. In January-September 2013, Romania posted a budget deficit of 1.3% of GDP.
For the whole year, Romania aims to keep the deficit below 2.2% of GDP.
In the first nine months, the consolidated budget registered revenue of 155.4 billion lei (EUR35.1 billion), up 5.5% on the year in nominal terms. Public spending went down 0.3% compared with January-September 2013, to RON155 billion. (Adevarul)
Ponta Says Johannis Makes Ungrounded Statements, Just Like Basescu
Prime Minister and presidential candidate Victor Ponta has recently said that the statements made by his contender Klaus Johannis regarding the government’s intention to increase taxes in 2015 are not at all grounded.
Ponta said Johannis is a lousy copy/paste version of President Traian Basescu and does not know what he is talking about.
Ponta added that Johannis does not even know about Romania’s GDP, deficit or the budget allocated to each and every ministry.(Puterea)