SNIPPETS Dates set for Romania's presidential elections / Insights on ad market

The dates have been set for the two rounds of presidential elections due to take place in Romania later this year. The central bank board has received preliminary approval by parliamentary commissions. And the head of a major media agency provides insights into Romania’s ad market.

• The head of Romania’s electoral authority AEP has announced the dates of the two rounds of presidential elections later this year – the first round on November 10th, with a second round two weeks later, on November 24th. More on this in Romanian here

• The joint budget commissions of the Romanian Parliament on Tuesday approved the nine members of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) board, who is due to be approved by the plenum of the parliament on Wednesday. It is formed of: Governor Mugur Isarescu, Florin Georgescu (supported by the governing PSD party), Leonard Badea (PSD), Gheorghe Gherghina (PSD), Dan Radu Rusanu (supported by ALDE party), Cristi Popa (supported by USR party), Eugen Nicolaescu and Virgil Stoenescu (supported by PNL party), and Balint Csaba (supported by UDMR party). More on this in Romanian here

• A sweeping emergency ordinance that hit the banking, energy and telecom sectors with new taxes and rules late last year had a serious impact on the advertising market as well – the sector would have grown by an additional 5% in the first half of the year, according to Alexandra Olteanu, head of the local branch of media buying outlet Initiative. She explained in an interview with HotNews.ro why the ad market growth has been slowing due to government decisions – full interview in Romanian here