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Wages - more money, mores problems

The PSD did what everybody wants. It raised wages. We all want happy Romanians. If we could, we would raise employees' wages every day, in fact, we would do so hourly.

THE NIGHTMARE OF MINISTER TUDOREL TOADER TAKING SHAPEKovesi, a favorite for the position of chief prosecutor of the European Parliament

The saying goes that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. That also applies to Laura Codruţa Kovesi, the former chief-prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Department, who has been dismissed for political reasons and in the interest of law breakers, upon the request of the Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader and the Constitutional Court of Romania, by president Klaus Iohannis. Kovesi is only two steps away from becoming chief prosecutor of the European Parliament, a position from which he will decide, together with the members of the executive college, the investigation of the defrauding of European grants allocated to every EU member state.

"If the SRI stopped protecting Isărescu, the interest rates and the exchange rate would calm down right away"

• Interview with economist Lucian Isar

Reporter: We are in a very stormy period, both on the monetary market as well as on the currency market, which began at the end of last year, when the ROBOR-tied tax on bank assets was approved, and that period has gotten more difficult after the explosion of the exchange rate. What is your view on the situation we are going through?

EU concert, in the winter of our discontent

Jean-Claude Juncker and the College of European Commissioner are in Bucharest since yesterday, where they are attending the festivities dedicated to the official takeover by Romania of the rotating presidency of the EU council.

The bidding war between the government and the opposition, staged by the de UDMR

The versatility of the UDMR is notorious, because we are talking about a political party which has always wanted to be in the government.

The UDMR has always negotiated its votes, with any party, whether right wing or left wing, based on three major notions: administrative autonomy for the counties of Harghita and Covasna, where the Hungarian minority is in the majority; the administrative recognition of the Szekely land; primary, secondary and high school education in Hungarian language, bilingual colleges; bilingual markers in localities where Hungarians are in the majority; the use of Hungarian language in the local and county administration, in the institutions of the state, in the localities where Hungarians represent at least 20% of the total population.

CRISTIAN PÂRVAN, PIAROM PRESIDENT:"The thinness of the economy cannot be hidden behind the numbers of the GDP"

• The estimated GDP for 2019 exceeds 1000 billion lei, Finance minister Eugen Teodorovici has announced on Tuesday

• Pârvan: "There are methods for increasing the GDP artificially, through the administered prices"

The thinness of the...

WE HAVE SCHEDULED DEFENSE SPENDING OF 9.3 BILLION EUROSArmament procurement offers benefits that the Government is refusing

After many years of the army getting ignored and budget allocations that seemed more like jokes, it took the White House demanding the splitting of the military bill, for the Romanian political decision makers to accept that the army needs equipment.

Did the Federal Reserve leave the president of the US in offside?

An unexpected change in the opinion of Jerome Powell, the president of the Federal Reserve, would show that, ar first glance, the president of the United States has imposed his will.

Romanians are the prisoners of the financialization of the economy by the National Bank

Adrian Vasilescu, strategy consultant at the NBR, has caused outrage in the press and in society through his statement madea the end of last week, that Romanians affected by the introduction of the new degree of indebtedness " should get 2-3...

Illustration by MAKE and Oana B., reproduced from BUCAREST HEBDO

Theresa May defends her Brexit plan

• Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UK opposition: "A second referendum for Brexit is not an option for the present"

UK prime-minister, Theresa May, rejected at the end of last week the counterproposals to her draft agreement negotiated...

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 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...

"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...

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...

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...

"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...

"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...

"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...