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Highways keep collapsing - this time in Germany

Angela Merkel inaugurated the highway in December 2005, less than a month after she became chancellor of Germany.

The highway was built on the territory of the former East Germany, connects Lubeck and the Polish border, after the junction with A11, and goes through the electoral precinct of chancellor Merkel.

"In 1997, the Lombard interest rate rose from 50% to 674%, in one night"

• (Interview with Radu Graţian Gheţea, President - CEO of CEC Bank)

In banking there are many risks and that is why banks need to be flexible and have as diverse an exposure as possible, which take the market circumstances at the time into account, says Radu Graţian Gheţea, President and CEO of CEC Bank. He told us, in an interview: "We have to adapt to what is happening in the market and we need to do things in such a way that the economic activity and that of the bank both function properly. If we're going with the idea that we want to eliminate every risk, then we'll just stop doing anything. For instance, we have been and we are a bank which heavily funds agriculture, which also means animal husbandry. A few years ago, our exposure to the aviculture sector was rather significant, and when the avian flu came we had to cover some non-performing loans on that segment. Now that the avian flu is done, we are facing the swine flu. What should we do, stop lending?"

Reporter: Lately, there have been opinions from some experts who are saying that there is a wave of non-performing loans of the ones taken out by the First Home Program. What is your comment on these statements?

THE VENICE COMMISSION CLAIMS:The new laws of justice favor offenders

• Klaus Iohannis is asking for the resignation of Tudorel Toader as minister of Justice

• Ludovic Orban: "We are at risk of saying goodbye to Schengen, and goodbye to European funds"

On Friday, the Venice Commission passed the report concerning the amendment of the laws of justice and the criminal legislation by the PSD-ALDE majority parliamentary coalition. In its opinion, the Commission expresses its concern over the fact that many of the changes made to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code in Romania seriously weaken the effectiveness of the criminal justice system when it comes to fighting corruption, violent crimes and organized crime.

The failure to update the natural gas royalties has caused a loss of 8 billion lei to the state budget

THE NATIONAL MINERAL RESOURCES AGENCY, IN A NOTIFICATION TO THE PRIME-MINISTER:The failure to update the natural gas royalties has caused a loss of 8 billion lei to the state budget

The Romanian government has lost over 8 billion lei, between 2006-2018, following the failure to update the royalties paid by the oil and gas companies, says Gigi Dragomir, the president of the National Mineral Resources Agency (ANRM), in a report sent to the prime-minister.

"Banks of the future need to speak the same language as the new generations"

• (Interview with Laszlo Diosi, OTP Bank CEO)

Reporter: How would you describe the banking market, at the present time?

Laszlo Diosi: Even though there are plenty of challenges, there are also many opportunities for the Romanian banking system. The lessons of the financial-economic crisis have resulted in a better regulated framework, stable, transparent and predictable. The guiding line of the policies developed by the authorities that are qualified, but in particular by those with a regulatory and oversight role has been characterized by a balance between profitability and systemic safety.

But there is no shortage of challenges. We are talking here about challenges which concern the digitalization of the banking system and the national and international legislation. The entire system needs to align with complex and sometimes confused regulations.

Recorded by Emilia Olescu

SPECIAL EDITION"The distribution of 90% of the profit does not affect the investment program of Nuclearelectrica"

Interview with Mr. Cosmin Ghiţă, interim CEO of Nuclearelectrica

• "The company never reached the number of hours of unplanned downtime scheduled for a year"

"Revolut has reached 90,000 users in Romania"

(Interview with Irina Nicoleta Scarlat, Country Manager Revolut Romania)

"The National Anticorruption Department has 4804 corruption cases ongoing"

(Interview with General Prosecutor Augustin Lazăr)

General Prosecutor Augustin Lazăr was the center of attention around the middle of last week, when Justice minister Tudorel Toader started the procedure for the revocation of the...

"The time has come to think of the renewal of our cooperation relations"

ROMANIA AND RUSSIA ROUND TABLE: IN SEARCH OF NEW COOPERATION FORMATS / INIUSHKIN IGOR, RUSSIAN EMBASSY IN ROMANIA:"The time has come to think of the renewal of our cooperation relations"

• "The prospects for the expansion of the trade relations between Romania and Russia are rather good"

The commodities exchanges between Russia and Romania have seen a rather significant drop in 2015 and 2016, but they have increased in...

The banks and the government have joined the dance to save each other

Italian finance minister, Giovanni Tria, recently said that the yield of government bonds is not justified by the fundamental aspects of the budget and it is expecting a drop in them, in order for "the negative effects on the banking system...

Trump accuses the Fed of insanity

• American president criticized the central bank for raising the interest rates

• Bloomberg: The richest people in the world have lost 99 billion dollars following the drops in the stock market

• Liviu Moldovan, financial analyst: "There...

REPORT FROM ROMEThe direct democracy forum: a gradual switch from local to national

Some people mistake direct democracy with "the popular democracy regime" of communism. No, it is called direct democracy, because the decision is not mediated by representatives.

The National Strategy for Durable Development, completed by October 1st

THE ROMANIAN DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE STRATEGY / LÁSZLÓ BORBÉLY, STATE ADVISOR:The National Strategy for Durable Development, completed by October 1st

• "We should more seriously concern ourselves with the durable development concept"

The National Strategy for Sustainable Development of Romania will be completed by October 1st, according to Laszlo Borbely, State Counselor, Head of...

MREPORT BY TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONALCorruption, an imported product

Globalization has also brought with it an unpleasant effect: cross-border corruption. According to the intermediate report Exporting Corruption for the year 2018, a document drawn up by the organization Transparency International, there is a...

"Revenues from the exploitation of natural gas in the Black Sea need to return to the energy sector"

DEPUTY VIRGIL POPESCU, VICEPRESIDENT OF THE COMMISSION FOR INDUSTRIES AND SERVICES"Revenues from the exploitation of natural gas in the Black Sea need to return to the energy sector"

The offshore law will once again reach the Commission, in one or two weeks, according to Mr. Virgil Popescu, the vice-president of the Commission for Industries and Services, the Chamber of Deputies.

MRS. FIREA'S VERBAL BOMBSThe mayor of Bucharest continues the war with the internal affairs minister

• "There have been attempts for the prefect to be made a scapegoat"

• "The support from the government wasn't much to talk about, so if it were withdrawn, there wouldn't be much of a difference"

Bucharest's...

Europe is seeing the specter of the "stones of hunger"

The particularly hot weather and the conditions of extreme draught in Europe have brought to light terrible warnings from the past.

Associated Press recently wrote that in the riverbed of the Elba in the Czech Republic have resurfaced the giant...

American record: the Nasdaq has exceeded the 8,000 points level

• Claudiu Cazacu, XTB România: "United States companies have posted results that even exceeded the analysts' expectations, which were already for 2-figure profit increases"

• Liviu Moldovan, financial analyst: "Currently,...

Darius Vâlcov digs up the IPO of Digi Communications

The capital market was marked, last week, by a number of controversial statements tied to the listing of Digi Communications, starting from the statements made recently by Darius Vâlcov, state advisor on the team of the prime-minister, who wrote...

"I would wholeheartedly vote for a Romexit"

• (Interview with Dan Paul, the president of the Association of Brokers)

The management of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) needs to find out from brokers whether Romania truly needs a derivatives market, says Dan Paul, the president of the...

THE DĂNCILĂ GOVERNMENT AFTER SIX MONTHSBudget deficit has increased 2.4 times

Now we know why prime-minister Dăncilă was in a hurry to announce the activity report for the first six months at the helm of the Romanian government: the nice tale of the hike of pensions and salaries wasn't supposed to be overshadowed by...

BECAUSE AN AGREEMENT ON THE PRICE COULDN'T BE REACHED, The Alro Public Offer has failed

The public offer started by Vimetco and Conef for a stake of at most 53.77% of the shares of Alro Slatina (Alro) has been unsuccessful, as the issuer announced that due to the unfavorable market conditions, the shareholders, company and...