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The Regions This Week
September 14, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Southeast Europe
Following months of delays, Bosnian lawmakers adopted key amendments to the criminal code, demanded by the European Union. Adoption of the changes will show Bosnia’s political will as
a credible EU partner in fighting serious crimes, the EU delegation to Bosnia said.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree early on September 13 requiring that only the Turkish lira is used in the buying, selling and renting of real estate and leasing of vehicles. It looks like another move to bolster the lira, the nosediving value of which has plunged Turkey into a currency crisis that threatens to morph into a debt and liquidity crisis.
Gay marriage could be ruled out in Romania af- ter senators on September 11 backed a proposal to change the Constitution so that it would state explicitly that the family is based on the marriage between a man and a woman. A referendum on the issue will be held on October 7.
Moldovan President Igor Dodon’s car was hit by a truck that apparently lost control on a wet road. Dodon survived with minor injuries, despite his car turning over in the accident.
The EBRD could buy stakes in Slovenia’s Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) and Abanka that are due to be privatised in 2018 and 2019 respectively, Reuters reported. Slovenia committed to sell-
ing 75% of its largest bank NLB and the whole of Abanka in exchange for the European Commis- sion’s approval of state aid to those banks in 2013.
Remittances sent home by Albanians working abroad jumped 11.6% y/y to €182mn in the sec- ond quarter of 2018, after rising by 8.9% y/y in the previous quarter, the central bank said.
Political scandals seriously lowered support for Bulgaria’s ruling coalition, a poll from local agency Mediana showed. The most significant recent scandal surrounded a deadly bus crash in August that caused the deaths of 17 people.
Croatia expects tourism to generate revenues of €12bn this year, €1bn more than in 2017, Tour- ism Minister Gari Cappelli said. Tourism is one of Croatia's key economic sectors and an important contributor to GDP.
Some Turkish companies are unable to pay their power bills amid the country’s ongoing economic turmoil, a local chamber of commerce said. “If this goes on, and no comprehensive solution backed by government support is found, we may see mass redundancies,” Nail Ciler, head of the Gebze Chamber of Commerce, told Bloomberg.
Kosovo suspended the activities of the Qatar Charity organisation in the country on suspicion that it was used to cover illegal activities and financing of terrorism. Qatar claims that its chari- table foundation respects the laws of the coun- tries where it operates.
Negotiations on minimum hourly pay failed in Serbia. The Social-Economic Council was unable to reach an agreement after trade unions rejected the 8.6% rise proposed by the government and employers.
The value of Romania’s software and IT services output will exceed €5.1bn and the number of com- panies in the sector will rise above 100,000 in 2019, according to a study by research company and con- sultancy Pierre Audoin Consultants for the Employ- ers' Association of Software and IT Services (ANIS). The development will be mainly driven by exports.