Press Review - November 27, 2015

11.27.2015 By Gabriela Stan

President Iohannis Meets With Ambassadors Of EU Member States Accredited To Bucharest

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday met with the ambassadors of EU member states accredited to Bucharest and had talks on migration, the solutions to solve the crisis, and the terrorist threats addressed to EU.

The President said that, during the talks, they approached important issues for Romania and the EU.

“We talked about our role and place in the EU, that we want to be part of the European Union’s core.

We talked about migration, refugees, about the fact that we have to collaborate with transit and origin countries to stop the current wave of refugees. We talked about the horrible terrorist attacks in Paris and the ways to prevent such attacks,” the President stated. (Puterea)

 

ARB: Law On Paying Off Mortgage Loans With Mortgaged Property To Negatively Impact Market Of Real Estate Loans

Romanian Banking Association (ARB) said that the law on the payment of mortgage loans with the mortgaged property, adopted by the Chamber of Deputies, is jeopardizing the market of real estate loans by drastically restricting the access to financing, which will negatively affect realtors and the constructions sector.

According to the draft law, the debtor has the right to pay off mortgage loans by transferring the ownership right over the mortgaged property to the lender. Thus, the debtor should notify the lender, through a judicial executor, a notary public or a lawyer, on the decision to transfer the property right over the mortgaged property. Subsequently, the lender will no longer be allowed to ask for additional amounts of money.(Puterea)

 

Household Electricity Prices To Drop 5-6% As Of January 1

Electricity prices for Romanian households will fall by 5-6% as of January 1, 2016, following the reduction of the distribution tariffs by 8-10% and the decrease of the cogeneration tax, Niculae Havrilet, head of Romania’s energy regulator ANRE, stated Thursday.

Havrilet added that Romania will also cut natural gas prices by minimum 10% as of July 1, 2016.

The current cost of a megawatt, equivalent to the average annual consumption of an apartment, is approximately RON400 plus VAT. The consumption of the urban population is 2-3 MW/year, while in rural areas, consumption is below 1 MW/year, or even below 0.5 MW/year.

"A 5% fall would mean RON20 plus VAT, while VAT will no longer be 24%, it will be 20% as of January 1, so this will be an interesting decrease," ANRE head stated. (Adevarul)

 

48.5% Of Romanian Children Live In Poverty Or Social Exclusion: Eurostat

Romania is the only country whose child poverty indicators worsened from 50% at the accession to the European Union in 2007, to 51% in 2014.

Thus, 48.5% of Romanian children live in poverty or social exclusion, according to Eurostat data, which is placing Romania on the second position in the entire Europe.

The children most vulnerable and exposed to poverty and marginalization are those living in the rural areas and Roma ethnics.

“If approximately 1,260,000 children of a total 3,800,000 in Romania, live in poverty, and only 58,013 of them benefit from the special protection measures in the public system (according to National Authority for Child’s Rights Protection and Adoption - ANPDCA), then over 95% of the children living in poverty need social services as they don’t benefit from those services in the public system,” said Bogdan Simion, president of the Federation of Nongovernmental Organizations to Protect Children (FONPC). (Adevarul)

 

Volkswagen Group Announces Technical Fixes For EA 189 Diesel Engines

Volkswagen group has presented specific technical measures for the EA 189 diesel engines affected with a displacement of 1.6 and 2.0 liters to the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, the company said in a statement.

The required technical update in the first vehicles will be implemented during a recall from January 2016, Volkswagen said.

According to the company, the vehicles will comply with the applicable emissions standards after the implementation of the technical measures, and the focus in the development of the solutions was on maximum customer-friendliness. (Romania Libera)