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The Regions This Week
May 25, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Southeast Europe Scotland-based BSW Timber will build
Slovenia’s largest sawmill, as well as a new CHP plant and pellet manufacturing facility, with a €40mn investment. The news has alarmed local sawmill operators who fear they risk being put out of business when BSW’s mill opens in 2020.
Montenegro is mulling plans to build a razor wire fence on its border with Albania to prevent the rising number of migrants passing through the new Balkan route to the EU countries. Migrants are now coming from the Middle East and North Africa using the new Balkan route starting from Greece via Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia to EU member Croatia.
Senate speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu was acquitted by Romania’s High Court in a perjury case. The probe concerned an illegal land restitution case, which caused financial damage to the Romanian state of more than €135mn.
Turkey’s new $6bn Star refinery is due to open in October. Star, on the Aegean coast near Izmir, will be the first new oil refinery to be built in Turkey in 30 years.
Construction of a gas pipeline linking Bulgaria and Serbia will start earlier than planned, Serbia’s Prime Minister Ana Brnabic announced. Brnabic said the Nis-Sofia pipeline was important to ensure security of supply for Serbia and Bulgaria, and the entire region.
A court ordered Bulgaria’s prime minister and his ruling Gerb party to pay a BGN5,000 (€2,557) fine to opposition MP Elena Yoncheva. The case was launched after Boyko Borissov claimed the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party had paid “millions” for Yoncheva’s news reports in her earlier career as a broadcast journalist.
Ford Motor Company will invest up to €200mn in its assembly plant in Craiova, Romania to start
the manufacture of a second model. Ford already produces the EcoSport small SUV in Romania, as well as the 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine.
Albania’s government must push for structural reforms, the IMF said. The Fund commended Albania’s strong economic growth, which reached 3.8% in 2017, but warned it may not last without structural reforms.
Thousands of anti-abortion supporters marched in three major Croatian cities. The marches came after the Croatian Constitutional Court ruled last year that a law allowing women to
have abortions up the 10th week of pregnancy was constitutional.
Turkey’s Gozde Girisim is looking to sell its mining unit Kumas Manyezit. Gozde Girisim, the investment unit of conglomerate Yildiz Holding, mandated its company directors to launch talks with potential strategic investors.
The Macedonian parliament adopted the new energy law in its second reading. The law is aimed at aligning national energy legislation with that of the EU, and envisages the liberalisation of the electricity market from 2019, allowing households and small firms to choose their supplier.
Pro-EU and pro-Russian candidates will face off in the second round of the mayoral elections in Moldova’s capital. The candidate of the pro-EU opposition in Moldova, Andrei Nastase, surpassed expectations and received 32% of the votes in the snap local elections in Chisinau, and will face Socialist candidate Ion Ceban in the second ballot.
A new road linking Kosovo and Albania was inaugurated. The road at the Krusheva- Shistavec border crossing will improve trade and communications between residents of the local region on both sides of the border.