Page 6 - bne IntelliNews weekly newspaper June 23

The Regions This Week
June 23, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Southeast Europe
The ruling Socialists are favoured by polls ahead of Albania’s June 25 general election. Prime Minister Edi Rama’s party is widely expected to win the election, but it is not clear whether it will have to find a coalition partner.
Hundreds of Croatian taxi drivers protested against Uber in Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik and Pula. They argue the ride-sharing app’s activities in Croatia break local legislation.
Bulgaria will support Macedonian aspirations
to become part of the EU and Nato, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said after meeting his Macedonian peer Zoran Zaev in Sofia. Zaev's visit to Bulgaria is seen as a chance to open a new page in the relations between the neighbouring countries.
Macedonia’s new government is cutting “luxu- ries” from the 2017 budget. The ruling SDSM says VMRO-DPMNE, which was recently ousted from power, planned to spend money on luxury travel and expensive furniture for government ministries.
Europe’s largest mobile taxi application operator Mytaxi, part of Daimler group, has acquired Roma- nian company Clever Tech, which operates mobile application Clever Taxi. Mytaxi is strengthening its presence on the European market, where it aims to mount a challenge to lift-sharing service Uber.
Moody’s warned over Montenegro’s rising government debt and volatile growth depend- ing strongly on foreign financing. According to the rating agency, Montenegro’s debt/GDP ratio increased to 67% in 2016, more than double the 2008 level of 28.4%.
Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank First Energy Bank exited its investment in Bulgarian fertilisers producer Neochim. The company op- erates one ammonia plant, two nitric acid plants and an ammonium nitrate plant.
Turkey sent an additional 23 troops and five armoured vehicles to Qatar, amid reports that Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations have demanded from the Doha government that it close a Turkish base there. The Ankara govern- ment is backing Qatar in the diplomatic crisis that erupted earlier this month.
Migrants are still making their way through the Balkans. However, but their route has changed, with the southern entry point shifting from the Greek islands to Bulgaria’s land border with Tur- key, German political foundation Friedrich-Ebert- Stiftung (FES) said.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic threat- ened to call early elections unless at least 128 MPs from the ruling party back Ana Brnabic as the country’s next prime minister. If appointed, Brnabic would become the first female and first openly gay prime minister in Serbia.
Montenegro is setting up its own power ex- change under an agreement between power com- pany EPCG, grid operator CGES and the Monte- negro Electricity Market Operator (COTEE). Three other Western Balkan countries – Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia – already have power exchanges.
A referendum on plans to expand Slovenia’s Koper-Divaca railway is likely after activists col- lected more than 41,000 signatures. Prime Minis- ter Miro Cerar accused opponents of the €1.4bn project of being politically motivated.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim gave Turkey's lend- ers a last chance to ease interest rates, stating that the government will take measures if they fail to act. The government wants the banks to sup- port economic activity by offering cheaper loans.
Bosnia will lose out on a new tranche of IMF fund- ing, after it failed to adopt legislative amendments. Sarajevo will now have to start negotiating new con- ditions in order to save the deal with the institution.