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The Regions This Week
March 15, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 10
Southeast Europe
North Macedonia’s President Gjorge Ivanov refused to sign proclamation decrees for eleven new bills adopted by parliament as he objects
to the country’s new name. Ivanov's refusal to sign the documents will require the parliament to vote on them again. Should MPs again back the bills, the president will be forced to sign them.
Russia’s Gazprom launched the construction of
a combined cycle thermal power plant in Serbia town of Pancevo that will have a capacity of 200 MW. The heat generated by the TPP will serve the needs of the Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) refinery in Pancevo, while the plant’s electric power output will be sold in Serbia and neighbouring countries.
Plans to open a Primark store in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana were confirmed in a trading up- date from its parent company Associated British Foods. This will be the fast fashion retailer’s first store in Central and Southeast Europe. Elsewhere in the region, Primark has lined up retail space in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The European Parliament voted for the Europe- an Union to formally suspend Turkey’s negotia- tions to join the bloc, citing widespread abuse of human rights. Following the vote, by 370 in favour to 109 against, with 143 abstentions, EU govern- ments will have the final say in any suspension of the accession process.
Romania’s parliament passed the 2019 state budget law once again, and will return it to Presi- dent Klaus Iohannis unchanged. Iohannis previ- ously said the bill was “not good enough”, return- ing it to lawmakers instead of promulgating it.
Norwegian floating solar technology developer
Ocean Sun will deliver Albania’s first floating solar plant with a maximum capacity of 2MW. In December 2018, Statkraft Albania received
a preliminary authorisation from the Albanian government for the implementation of a floating solar plant at Banja with a feed-in-tariff.
Group DNC, the franchisee of Gloria Jean’s Cof- fees in Turkey, decided to declare concordato because of the country’s economic problems. Turkish law contains provisions that give strug- gling companies temporary protection — known to Turks as “concordato” — from creditors.
Bulgaria is preparing to pick strategic investor for the Belene nuclear power plant. The govern- ment’s strategy aims to secure construction of Belene within 10 years at a cost of up to €10bn.
Croatian food and retail group Agrokor an- nounced an operating profit of HRK34.2(€4.6mn) in the period from February 11 to March 10, 2019. The company almost collapsed in 2017 due to a debt crisis but has since undergone restructuring.
European Union’s Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn criticised Bosnia’s decision to back a Chinese loan for the construction of a new unit at Tuzla coal-fired plant. The parlia- ment of Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Muslim-Croat Federation previously approved a guarantee for a loan from China’s Exim Bank for the construc- tion of a new unit at the Tuzla coal-fired plant, unfreezing the controversial project.
Kosovo’s harmonised index of consumer price (HICP) inflation accelerated to 3.2% y/y in Feb- ruary from 3.1% y/y a month earlier and 2.9% at the end of 2018, Kosovo’s statistics office said on March 12. The HICP index edged up by 0.4% in February, after a similar 0.4% advance in January.
Czech-based Zentiva Group and Siyiara Enterprises have signed an agreement on
the acquisition of Romanian pharmaceutical company Solacium, together with its subsidiary Be Well Pharma. Solacium is currently part of the Dr. Max Group and owned by Siyiara Enterprises together with a Romanian businessman.