-?Romanian government and parliament officials have recently secured a 20% salary increase that they are going to receive in two instalments in the coming months. After the government confirmed the planned salary-raise the Romanian police announced that it will boycott the upcoming elections unless policemen’s salary is also increased.
-?The Slovenian National Assembly adopted a resolution that is believed to pave the way for the expansion of the country’s sole nuclear power plant in Kr?ko. In addition to stating the importance of the expansion to secure the country’s long-term energy supply, the resolution also calls for a referendum to be held on the so-called ‘Kr?ko 2’ project.
- KRD, who manages Poland’s largest debt registry made a survey assessing the financial literacy of Poles. Albeit respondents self-assessed their own financial literacy to be rather good or average, it turns out most respondents had difficulties understanding concepts such inflation. Only 25% of respondents could correctly answer a question about the meaning of inflation, while only 51% knew what a ‘creditor’ is, the rest either confused ‘creditors’ with ‘debtors’ or with debt collectors.
- In April food prices rose significantly in the Czech Republic. Overall food prices increased by 1.7%, the change in the price of pork, poultry, vegetables, dairy products, bakery items and chocolate drove most of the inflation. Early in the year VAT rates were reduced on essential goods from 15 to 12%, but nevertheless from January to April food prices increased – for instance, rice prices are up by 6.7% while flour prices by 6.9% since January.
- The Slovenian National Assembly adopted a resolution on the use of nuclear energy. The resolution will pave the way for the expansion of the country’s sole nuclear power plant in Kr?ko. Deputies also supported the proposal to hold a referendum on Kr?ko’s expansion in November. The resolution, rejected only by the Slovenian Left, highlights the importance of the Kr?ko 2 project that can ensure the long-term reliable energy supply of the country. Kr?ko 2 is planned to be build with a capacity of 1?000 to 1?650 megawatts for about 10 to 15 billion euro.
- INA, member of MOL Group, awarded 60?000 euros to fifteen Croatian ecological projects. A six-member expert jury selected these 15 projects from the 158 submissions to the 11th competition of INA Green Belt. One of the winning project was submitted by Ilok High School whose plan to revitalise the garden behind the school, planting herbs in it and building a special house for insects from the funds. Among the winners are also the ?umberak Nature Park who received funds to acquire and plant about 60 seedlings and revitalise the park’s yew habitat.
- Romanian government and parliament officials have been expressing their dissatisfaction with the planed salary increases ever since the government announced it. Critiques highlight that while the government promised to increase the salary received by government employees in December in two instalments by 5% in June and another 5% in September, salaries already increased by 5% in January. That is in real terms the government will increase salaries only once more. As a result of general dissatisfaction, the government was forced to reconsider its plans, stating that it will increase the salary received by government employees in January by 20% in two instalments. Upon learning the news that government and parliament officials are about to get a pay-raise the Romanian police announced that they are going to boycott the upcoming elections in June unless policemen also receive a salary increase not less than 10%.
- According to statistics published on World Bee Day on Monday Romania is the third largest honey exporter in the European Union. In 2023 only Spain and Germany exported more honey than Romania. Almost half of the Romanian honey production is exported, between 10?000 and 15?000 tonnes.
- 19 modernised railway carriages arrived in Bulgaria from Germany’s Deutsche Bahn. By mid-June the new carriages will be put into use. According to the Bulgarian Transport Minister Georgi Gvozdeikov the arrival of the carriages is the first step towards modernising the country’s railway transport. The arrived carriages will run on the Sofia-Bourgas and Sofia-Varna lines that are the longest routes in the country. In total the country has purchased 76 carriages for about 30 million leva.
