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12 I Companies & Markets bne July 2021
accession negotiations at an EU summit in late 2020.
But while the emphasis from Varhelyi was on regional co-operation, it emerged that the prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo had clashed during the summit.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told reporters after the summit that it was "more difficult than she expected” and that “she tried to focus on good results and co-operation in the region, but that someone else [Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti] moved the conversation to the field of politics”, a statement on the Serbian government website said.
Romexpo real estate project exposes divisions within Romania’s ruling coalition
Iulian Ernst in Bucharest
Tensions are rising within the Romanian ruling coalition as its members fail to find common grounds on an increasing number of topics.
The coalition was formed after the general elections last December by the National Liberal Party (PNL) with junior members USR Plus, a party set up relatively recently and advocating for radical reforms, and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR).
The latest issue to publicly divide the parties is the €3bn Romexpo development in Bucharest. PNL president and speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Ludovic Orban, admitted on June 17, that “there is no consensus among the ruling coalition’s members” regarding the Romexpo real estate project in Bucharest CBD. This includes deal under which 46ha of land worth €300mn-500mn would be handed over for free to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIR) for the development.
The deal, initially approved by the PNL and the opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) in the past legislature, passed unnoticed until it was close to being promulgated, when USR Plus first brought the issue to the media.
CCIR, an NGO defined as “of public interest”, has the right
to use the land for another 32 years and claims that unless it
is given full ownership rights the land will remain unused. It already announced a partnership with major local developer Iulius Group, but promised to use “for the benefit of Romanian
www.bne.eu
“In today’s #WB6 summit in #Tirana I said that we need to upgrade and accelerate membership into #EU. To this end we need to change the current framework of co-operation where Kosova is continuously treated unjustly & unfairly. I proposed we establish a new agreement called SEFTA,” Kurti tweeted after the meeting.
“SEFTA (South East European Free Trade Agreement) would be modelled on the current EFTA-EEA Agreement with similar structure but with direct involvement of EU to ensure that
all members comply with the agreement to have a common market that works fairly and justly.”
business community” the dividends derived from the new mixed-use project to be built on the land.
USR Plus has spoken out strongly against the “fraudulent” deal, while the PNL, according to Agerpres, is now considering its position.
“The PNL has not made any decision on this project. Also, no decision has yet been made in the coalition on this project. We discussed once in the coalition, it remains that we will discuss again," Orban stated in the parliament.
Asked why the decision is so difficult, Orban explained: "We still don't have a common point of view in the coalition and
if we can harmonise the points of view so that we can support a certain form of law together, that's better, since we are
a ruling coalition.”
The narrative of those criticising the land transfer is that it represents an unjustified transfer of wealth to the CCIR, which wants to put the land at the disposal of major real estate developer and investor Iulius Group for a €3bn mixed-use project.
The party referred the bill to the Constitutional Court, saying it which did not believe in the public benefits of granting
a plot of land evaluated at over €300mn free of charge to
a private entity like the CCIR (the beneficiary of the land is Romexpo, controlled by the CCIR). The court didn't see any constitutional issue and cleared the draft.