US ELECTION 145 million registered voters are expected to elect the 45th president of the US today, after a year and a half of electoral fighting of an unprecedented violence, international news agencies report. Agencies recall the surprise made by the Republican Party when announcing its candidate, the 70 year old tycoon Donald Trump, the scandal triggered by the Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, and the fierce debates that the two had. According to the latest polls, Hillary Clinton, who might soon become the first woman president in the history of the US, benefits from an advantage of 3 to 4%. Therefore, the winner will be decided by the votes from the so-called ‘swing states’, such as Ohio, Florida and North Carolina. Barack Obama’s successor will take over the office in January 2017.
PAY RISES The Romanian Government has decided to challenge at the Constitutional Court the law providing for 15% pay rises for doctors and teachers as of January 1st 2017, the Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has announced. He has explained that the Government was not asked for an opinion about the measures, as the procedure in force would have required, and there was no transparent debate on the bill. The Social Democratic Party, the initiator of this law, supported by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, the national minorities’ group and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania, claims there is enough money for such pay rises. The liberal opposition did not support the law and did not take part in the final voting.
NATO The foreign ministers of 9 NATO countries from the Eastern Flank – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary – have gathered in Bucharest to attend a meeting organized by the Romanian and Polish foreign ministries. The participants are discussing the security situation in the region and will analyze the stage of implementation of the decisions made at the NATO summit in Warsaw. The meeting is also attended by the new NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller. On Monday, she met in Bucharest with the Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu, and the two talked about the anti-missile system in Deveselu and the activation by Romania of a multinational division within the NATO Division Southeast, aimed at supporting defense and security in this part of Europe. Mrs. Gottemoeller also held talks with the Defense Minister Mihnea Motoc about the importance of the Black Sea for the Euro-Atlantic security and stability. Gottemoeller stressed the interest in maintaining the unity, effectiveness and solidarity of the allied countries, against an extremely complex security background.
TV-RADIO FEE On Thursday, Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis will attend the debate titled: The elimination of the TV-radio license fee, support for or threat to the mission of public broadcasting?. The event, organized by ActiveWatch, is aimed at facilitating a dialogue between the head of state and journalists, representatives of media organizations and civil society representatives about the situation of public broadcasting companies, especially following the endorsement by parliament of the law providing for the elimination of several taxes and fees, including the TV-radio one. Radio Romania and the Romanian Television on Monday held a joint debate on the issue. The director of the Center for Independent Journalism Ioana Avadanei has stated that, by eliminating this contribution, the direct link between citizens and the public service is severed, and people will keep on paying from budget money.
ECOFIN The Romanian Finance Minister Anca Dragu is attending today the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) in Brussels. The European Commission will present a new package of proposals for the implementation of a fair, competitive and sustainable taxation system for companies in the EU. According to a communiqué issued by the European Commission, a modification of budget regulations in the EU is envisaged, under which the Eurozone member states must submit annually to the EC, in October, the draft budgets for next year. Also, the participants will tackle the draft directive that would grant fiscal authorities access to information held by the authorities responsible for the prevention of money laundering. The new set of rules, aimed at helping authorities hamper tax evasion and fraud, will come into force in January 2018.
IMF The IMF has approved a funding program for the Republic of Moldova, the former Soviet country with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population, worth more than 180 million dollars. Chisinau has not had an agreement with the IMF since 2013, and the signing of a new one depended on the resumption of funding from the EU, the WB and the disbursement of the next tranche from the loan offered by Romania. The decision was made in the run-up to the second presidential ballot in Moldova. According to the latest poll on voters’ intentions, 55.6% of them would vote for the pro-Russian socialist Igor Dodon, and 44.4% for the pro-Western Maia Sandu. The authors of the poll, quoted by Radio Romanian correspondents, say that the survey did not cover the representatives of the large Moldovan diaspora, of whom 75% voted in favour of Maia Sandu in the first round.
