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The Regions This Week
January 26, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Southeast Europe
Tens of thousands of people protested in Bucha-
rest and other Romanian cities, with the number of participants estimated at more than 50,000 in the capital alone. The protest concerned justice bills recently adopted by the parliament and the planned changes to the criminal code and crimi- nal procedure code, which are seen as weakening the independence of the judiciary and Romania’s fight against corruption.
The Serbian government decided to relaunch its tax receipt lottery to combat the grey economy. The previous “Take the receipt and win” lottery
in 2017 resulted in a 33% increase in turnover through fiscal cash registers for small taxpayers, while non-cash transactions grew by 18.5%.
Slovenia’s consumer confidence indicator reached its highest value since March 1996 in January. According to the statistics office, in annual terms, all four component indicators — reflecting expectations about the economy, the unemploy- ment level, savings and households’ finances — had a positive impact on the confidence indicator.
Mak Albania, part of the Kuwaiti group Al Kharafi, is gradually selling all its assets in Albania. Hotels and tourism focussed Al Kharafi was among first investors in Albania, starting its operations in 1994, but is now selling off its assets because of Mak Albania's poor financial results.
Bulgaria’s government led by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov survived its first no-confidence motion. The motion was filed by the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, and was doomed to fail as Borissov’s government has a comfortable ma- jority to support it in parliament.
Kosovan officials appealed to the European Commission to give them a clearer idea of their country’s path to EU accession. The EC is prepar- ing a new strategy document on enlargement that will set 2025 as the accession deadline for Monte- negro and Serbia.
Romanian low-cost carrier Blue Air reported
a 70% increase in passenger numbers last year. The hike to 5mn passengers was mainly due to a larger number of domestic routes including from major Romanian cities to the seaside.
Chinese auto-parts manufacturer Mei Ta Europe will build a second factory in Serbia. The €100mn factory is expected to employ 2,500 people.
The former head of Bulgaria’s National Intelli- gence Service, General Kircho Kirov, was sen- tenced to 15 years in jail for the misappropriation of BGN5.1 (€2.6mn) of public funds between 2007 and 2011. Now it holds the rotating EU Council presidency, Bulgaria is under pressure to prove
it is actually fighting top-level corruption.
Several thousand Slovenian public sector work- ers rallied to demand higher salaries. Pressure on the government to raise wages is increasing in the run-up to Slovenia’s next general election, due to take place in the first half of this year.
Albanian prosecutors charged Turkish steel- maker Kurum and two of its managers with fraud and money laundering. Kurum started op- erating in Albania in the late 1990s, and was one of the biggest exporters in Albania before filing for bankruptcy due to its huge debts.
Bosnia & Herzegovina’s foreign trade gap grew 5% in 2017 to reach BAM7.1bn (€3.63bn). The ris- ing trade gap is disappointing for Sarajevo given the government's efforts to boost exports and raise the competitiveness of local production.
The Russian Duma condemned Moldova’s new anti-propaganda law, saying it discriminates against the Russian mass media. Under the law, Moldova will only allow broadcasts of TV and radio programmes with informative, analytical, military and political content which are produced in the EU, the US, and Canada, and which have ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television.