Press Review - August 2, 2018

08.02.2018 By Oana Gavrila

Romania Could Cut VAT Rate to 18% in 2020

Romania's government is considering lowering the value-added tax rate to 18% in 2020 from the current 19%, people close to the matter told Mediafax.

According to the ruling party's governing program, VAT should be cut to 18% as of January 2019 and the government is expected to decide later this year whether to apply the measure or postpone it for 2020.

USR Calls for Resignation of Police Chiefs

The opposition USR party on Wednesday called for the resignation of top Romanian Police officials for the way it handled the case of a man with anti-ruling party custom plates on his car.

Romania’s traffic police opened criminal procedures on Monday morning in the publicized case of a citizen who drove throughout the country with anti-ruling party license plates registered in Sweden, confiscating the plates and suspending his driver's license.

Razvan S., 45, was pulled over by traffic police in Bucharest on Monday on suspicion of driving with invalid license plates. Police confiscated his driver’s permit and his car’s license plates.

“Today it's license plates, tomorrow it might be the right to free speech and the right to protest! For two days now, Police has been unable to explain why it lifted the man's driver's license and license plates. Heads of police contradict one another, citing expired conventions and arguments of morality that have nothing to do with the law. The action was clearly political and it is very serious that a state institution has acted against freedom of speech and restricted the rights of a Romanian citizen by order of the ruling party,” USR said in a press release.

Romanian Defense Minister Erroneously States Deveselu Base Hosts Ballistic Missiles

Romania’s Defense Minister, Mihai Fifor, came under heavy criticism on Wednesday morning after erroneously stating that the NATO/US base in Deveselu, which contains part of an anti-missile shield, would actually host ballistic missiles.

Members of the political opposition asked for the minister’s resignation following the statements, claiming that such mistakes risk causing an international security crisis.

“Mihai Fifor, Defense Minister, states that we have <ballistic> missiles in Deveselu. The stupidity of the Dancila cabinet is already becoming dangerous, it risks dragging us into a war. Resignation!” wrote Liberal Party spokesman Ionel Danca in a post on his official Facebook page.

Former president Traian Basescu also called for Fifor’s resignation, claiming that through this statement he became an ally of Russia in discrediting NATO, US, and Romanian strategic decisions, deeming it “the most heinous and incorrect statement” made in the country since the fall of the communist regime.

Romania Reports Over 500 Swine Fever Outbreaks

Romania has registered 524 outbreaks of African swine fever on its territory starting June 8, 2018, said food safety authority head Geronimo Bratescu.

The vast majority of outbreaks, 521, were recorded in people's households. Branescu said the illness has spread rapidly and aggressively.

In June alone, authorities culled over 1,700 pigs in private households in the Danube Delta area in Tulcea county and started the culling of 44,580 pigs in a commercial farm in the area.