Page 11 - bne_newspaper_July_12_2019

The Regions This Week
July 12, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
Southeast Europe
Two Russian comedians pranked North Macedo- nia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. Pretending to be Ukraine's former president Petro Poroshen- ko, comedians Vladimir "Vovan" Kuznetsov and Alexei "Lexus" Stolyarov called Zaev three times between August 2018 and April 2019.
The EU confirmed its commitment to strengthen cooperation with the six Western Balkans countries, setting concrete measures focusing
on five key areas: transport and energy, digital, economy, security and good neighbourly relations. The measures were taken during the Western Balkans Poznan summit in Poland, shortly after the European Council deferred its decision on the opening of accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia.
The number of tourists in Bulgaria’s summer resorts will be up to 8% lower y/y this year, according to Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova. Bulgarians are increasingly choosing to holiday abroad, and those that do stay in the country
have posted photos of almost completely empty beaches and resorts on social media.
Romania has made very little progress in implementing measures to prevent corruption among politicians and magistrates, the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body (GRECO) said. The country has also failed to address the concerns raised by its controversial judicial reform.
Bosnia’s troubled aluminium smelter Aluminij halted operations as utility Elektroprivreda HZHB cut off its power due to its unpaid bills. The government of the Muslim-Croat Federation has failed to find a last-minute solution to prevent
the power cut, though it is in talks with potential buyers for the smelter.
German carmaker giant Volkswagen gave up
on plans to build a production plant in Turkey,
a well-informed journalist announced on Twitter. “I learnt that Volkswagen will not go ahead with the investment,” said Emre Ozpeynirci, who widely reports on the local automotive industry in high- circulation Hurriyet newspaper.
Slovenia will increase the security on its border with Croatia due to the increased number of refugees who have crossed the border, including with new equipment such as drones. According to police data, the number of illegal border crossings increased rapidly in the first half of 2019, by 47% or 1,712 more than in the same period last year.
Albanian opposition mayors refused to hand over their mandates after new mayors were elected in the June 30 local elections boycotted
by the main opposition parties. The refusal by opposition mayors to leave their posts escalates the crisis sparked by President Ilir Meta’s decision to cancel the election that went ahead anyway with the support of the government.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)
submitted a bill to parliament to establish a new tourism promotion agency in Turkey, a move
that both pleased and irked the country’s tourism companies. The main reason for concern is the way the new agency is to be financed. The bill pro- poses that tourism firms in the country pay 1% of their revenues to the new agency – in effect a tax.
Production at Romanian carmaker Dacia’s plant in Mioveni went up by 9% y/y in the first half
of 2019, the Association of Car Manufacturers
in Romania (ACAROM) announced. The plant produced 191,776 cars in the first half of the year, of which Duster SUVs accounted for the bulk (76%) or 145,559 cars.