Radio România Internațional

Tag: bill

  • June 17, 2020 UPDATE

    June 17, 2020 UPDATE

    Covid-19 The Romanian Government decided to extend the state of alert by another 30 days, against the background of the Covid-19 pandemic. The measure came into force on Wednesday, though several restrictions have also been lifted. Among other things, fitness centres, betting and gambling centres and the shops inside malls have been reopened. Also, religious services are allowed inside churches. According to the authorities, although the trend has been downward, the number of cases of infection with the new coronavirus might grow anytime. Lately, new cases have been reported, raising the total to 22,760 infections. The death toll now stands at 1,451. Of those who tested positive, more than 16,100 recovered. In related news, 85 Romanian nationals working on a farm in Bavaria tested positive for the novel coronavirus. All are asymptomatic and quarantined.



    PENSIONS The Chamber of Deputies Wednesday endorsed a bill regulating the taxation of the so-called “special pensions, a controversial topic in Romanian society. With 307 votes in favour and just 1 against, the bill, endorsed by the Senate in 2019 as well, was backed by all parliamentary parties. According to Radio Romania News and Current affairs, the Deputies decided to introduce a tax on the balance between regular pensions, based on contributions to social security funds, and special pensions. Incomes from special pensions in excess of 7,000 lei (little under 1,500 euros) will thus be subject to an 85% tax. Unless it is challenged at the Constitutional Court, the bill will be forwarded to the President for promulgation. The Chamber of Deputies also passed a bill that provides that criminals convicted for manslaughter, rape, aggravated robbery, sexual abuse against children and exploitation of begging can no longer benefit from conditional release.



    FLIGHTS The Bucharest Airports National Company organized on Wednesday an event titled ‘Everything will be fine!’, which marks the resumption of flights after the break imposed by the global coronavirus crisis. Specifically, flights have been resumed to and from Austria, Germany and Switzerland, whereas those to and from the Czech Republic, Greece, Portugal and Scandinavian countries were resumed a while ago. A spokesman for the company said investments were not suspended or delayed in April and May, when the companys revenues fell by nearly 98%. At the same time, Wednesdays event was devoted to the anniversary of the first flight by a Romanian plane, designed, built and piloted by Aurel Vlaicu, on June 17, 1910.



    FOOTBALL The match pitting Romanias football team against Iceland, in the semi-finals of the European Championship playoffs, postponed twice over the coronavirus pandemic, will be played in Reykjavik on October 8, UEFA announced on Wednesday. Should it win, Romania will take on the winner of the match between Bulgaria and Hungary, on November 12. The goal is to qualify into the European Championship final tournament, rescheduled for the summer of 2021, which will be hosted by the same 12 European cities, including Bucharest. UEFA Nations League matches will also be played this autumn.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • May 13, 2020

    May 13, 2020

    COVID-19 ThThe COVID-19 death toll in Romania has reached 1016,
    the Strategic Communication Group announced today. According to the latest
    official data, the total number of cases is over 16,000, of which almost 8,000 patients
    have recovered. The largest number of cases is reported in Suceava (north-east)
    and in the capital Bucharest. Among the Romanians living abroad, more than 2,850
    have so far tested positive for the virus, mostly in Italy, Spain and Germany,
    and 102 have died since the start of the pandemic.




    BILL The bill introduced by the Government with respect to the state of alert set to replace the state of emergency on May 15, is debated and voted on today in the Chamber of Deputies, the decision-making parliamentary body in this case. The Senate passed the bill on Tuesday, but the text was substantially amended, mostly by the Social Democrats in opposition. Under the bill, the state of alert can only be in place for 30 days at most, and its introduction must be approved by Parliament. A number of articles were also scrapped, regulating among others the work of public administration institutions, criticised by most parties on grounds of introducing excessive political control on the administration. The bill concerns the introduction of temporary and gradual measures to prevent and contain the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, so as to safeguard citizens right to life, health and physical integrity at the cost of restricting other fundamental rights and freedoms.




    MOTION Romanian Deputies are today voting on a simple motion tabled by the Social Democratic Party in Opposition against the Liberal finance minister Florin Cîţu. “The countrys resources must no longer be pawned, Romania must be saved from the ‘Florin Cîţu virus,’ and the finance minister must go, reads the text of the motion. The Social Democrats claim Cîţu proved unable to come up with efficient measures to support the economy. On Monday, when the motion was debated, minister Cîţu accused the Social Democrats of using the virus to promote their political agenda. He said that during the 2 months of the governments implementing measures to restart the economy, the Social Democrats tried to amend them in Parliament in a populist manner. Had their amendments been passed, Romania would have been in economic chaos, Florin Citu added.




    CONSTITUTIONAL COURT The Constitutional Court of Romania Wednesday ruled that the government emergency order regulating the state of alert is constitutional, but it cannot restrict citizen rights. The Court was notified by the Ombudsman, who claims that fundamental rights and freedoms can only be restricted by law, and not by emergency or government orders. Delegating legislative powers that affects citizens rights comes against the principle of the separation of powers, under which Parliament is the countrys only legislative authority, the Ombudsman argued. The Constitutional Court had previously ruled that the fines issued during the state of emergency were unconstitutional.




    ECONOMY Romanias economy is expected to shrink 4% this year, as against a 3.2% growth rate predicted in November 2019, reads a report made public on Wednesday by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The EBRD lowered its estimates concerning the Romanian economy in 2020, as a result of the corona crisis. For 2021, the institution expects a 4% growth of Romanias GDP. The EBRD is the main institutional investor in Romania, with investments totalling over 8.6 billion euros. The European Commission has also adjusted its estimates for the Romanian economy this year and expects a substantial, 6% fall after years of robust growth, while the government deficit is forecast to reach 9.2% of the GDP this year. In turn, the IMF expects Romanias economy to drop 5% in 2020, and to recover in 2021, when a 3.9% growth rate is predicted.




    PANDEMIC There are over 4.3 million cases of coronavirus infections worldwide, with the death toll standing at nearly 293,000. 1.6 million patients have recovered so far. In the US, the worst hit country in the world, the number of deaths is over 82,000. Russia, with more than 232,000 cases, comes second. China announced plans to test all the 11 million locals in Wuhan, the region where the outbreak started, after several new infections were reported early this week.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • A bill that stirs public emotion

    A bill that stirs public emotion

    Romanias Senate Wednesday dismissed, by a comfortable majority, a controversial bill regarding the autonomy of the Szekler Land, under which this region in Transylvania would have been turned into an autonomous legal entity.



    The bill was initially passed automatically by the Chamber of Deputies, through a procedure roughly equivalent to what is known as pocket veto, in the form tabled by 2 deputies from the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians.



    The so-called Szekler Land is a region in the centre of the country mostly inhabited by ethnic Hungarians, and comprises the counties of Covasna, Harghita and part of Mureș County. The bill defined the borders of the territory that would have become the Szekler Land, which was supposed to have its own administrative organisation, its own institutions, using Hungarian as an official language and the official symbols of the Hungarian nation.



    The pocket vetoing of the bill, which triggered tough political responses and emotion across society, is a legislative procedure in which, when the Chamber of Deputies is the first chamber that receives a bill and it fails to debate it within a set deadline, the bill is deemed approved and automatically forwarded to the Senate for the final vote.



    President Klaus Iohannis accused the Social Democratic Party—the largest Opposition party in Romania—of having helped the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians to pass the bill in the Chamber.



    Klaus Iohannis: “Whereas we—me, the government, the other authorities—are fighting the pandemic and struggling to save the lives of Romanians, the Social Democratic Party is fighting in their secret offices in Parliament to give Transylvania to the Hungarians! Jó napot, Ciolacu. I wonder what the Budapest leader Viktor Orban promised you, in exchange for this deal?



    The Chamber speaker and interim leader of the Social Democrats, Marcel Ciolacu, dismissed the accusations:



    Marcel Ciolacu: “Nobody has sold Transylvania, and nobody will! This has always been and will always be a part of Romania. I call on intelligence services to make a public statement and say whether or not they have ever sent President Iohannis any information concerning these accusations made against me and the Social Democratic Party, because electoral competition must not be brought down to such a level.



    In a news release issued after the bill was rejected by Senate, the President of Romania warns that promoting such legislation is harmful for the Hungarian community, first and foremost, and generates artificial tensions within society.



    A number of Senators emphasised the unconstitutional nature of the bill, and said it could not have been endorsed by the Constitutional Court in the first place.



    The notable exception was the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, which says the demands of the Hungarian minority are “absolutely justified and deplored the fact that Senate refused to discuss the matter.



    In neighbouring Hungary, foreign minister Peter Szijjarto called on President Iohannis to “show more respect for the Hungarians. In response, the Romanian foreign ministry rated Budapests claims as “provocative and inappropriate and warned that the Hungarian official regrettably misinterpreted the statements made by the Romanian president


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Law against special pensions

    Law against special pensions

    Barely one month into a year marked by local and parliamentary elections, Romanian politicians are competing in initiatives meant to please the general public. On Tuesday, the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest held a special session in which they passed a bill scrapping the so-called special pensions, with 247 votes in favour against 21 abstentions.



    The clear score however says nothing about the heated debates that preceded the vote. The Liberals, currently in power, and the Social Democrats, who were sent into the opposition at the end of last year, accused each others of being the ones who had introduced such privileges to various professional categories in the first place. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania and the Liberal Democrats requested a postponement of the debates, whereas Save Romania Union asked for further restrictions, including a cap on pensions for magistrates.



    The final text of the bill does away with the special pensions paid to MPs, to judges and prosecutors, to court clerks and prosecutors office clerks, to certain categories of civil servants, to diplomats and to Constitutional Court members, and to airline staff. All these categories had so far received pensions that were not based on their previous contributions to pension funds, and which were generally seen as unjustified, unfair and ultimately as a slap in the face of the millions of pensioners struggling to make ends meet.



    However, the special retirement benefits to be paid to former military, police and intelligence service personnel were left untouched, and so were the benefits paid to former athletes, artists, scientists and to members of associations in the creative sector.



    The leader of the Liberal floor group, Florin Roman, said the special pension cuts would cover part of the costs entailed by a planned increase in child allowances and regular pensions. The president of Save Romania Union, Dan Barna, warned that the document contains elements that may be challenged at the Constitutional Court. He suggested instead, although with no success, a number of amendments that kept the special pensions in place for magistrates, but below a specific cap. In turn, the Social Democrats group leader Alfred Simonis, says that in case the court rules the bill unconstitutional, Parliament will operate the required amendments.



    The president of the High Court of Cassation and Justice Alina Corbu warned, shortly after the vote in the Chamber of Deputies, that the bill comes against a previous ruling by the Constitutional Court. She says the special pensions for magistrates are part of a set of guarantees underlying the independence and impartiality of the judiciary.



    Previously, the Judicial Inspection Division and various magistrate associations had also claimed that scrapping their special pensions would be a “brutal violation of the principles of independence and immovability of judges, as defined by the Constitution of Romania and by ECHR rulings.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Government to request Parliament’s confidence over budget bill

    Government to request Parliament’s confidence over budget bill

    On Monday the Government of Romania will seek Parliaments confidence vote on the 2020 state budget. PM Ludovic Orban has announced that his Cabinet will take responsibility on the state budget bill, the social security budget bill and on a bill amending Government Order 114. MPs have until Monday to introduce amendments to the bills, and the PM said those amendments that will improve next years budgets will be accepted.



    In turn, the Finance Minister Florin Citu says that both the budget for public healthcare and salaries in public education will be raised. The social security budget will also be higher next year, by around 23% compared to 2019. Pensions will also be increased, but, the Labour and Social Solidarity Minister Violeta Alexandru explained, minimum pensions will be kept at the same level next year:



    Violeta Alexandru: “We have decided that, given the pressure on the 2020 public budget, minimum pensions should stay the same, namely at 704 lei. Minimum pensions are those paid to the people who have never contributed to the public pension system. The principle against which pension benefits will be calculated is, as you know, that pensions are based on the amount contributed to the system.



    The third bill that the Government wants rushed through Parliament scraps most provisions in the Government Order 114, and introduces fiscal measures based on which next years budget has been drafted. The Prime Ministers chief of staff Ionel Danca says the Order 114 provisions concerning the energy sector will also be eliminated:



    Ionel Danca: “The provisions regarding a 2% tax on the turnover of energy companies and caps on the natural gas and electricity prices have been repealed. Transitional measures have been introduced with respect to deregulating the natural gas and electricity market as of July 1 and December 31st, 2020, respectively.



    Caps have also been introduced as regards allowances for public offices, merit allowances as well as food allowances, public pensions and public salaries can no longer be received concurrently, and increments for difficult working conditions will be 25% of the whole-economy minimum wages.



    The Social Democratic Party in opposition says the government taking responsibility before parliament for the state budget is a very bad idea. They threatened they would take the matter to the Constitutional Court if the parliamentary debates and vote are bypassed.



    The state budget for 2020 is based on an estimated 4.1% economic growth rate, a 3.6% budget deficit and an estimated average inflation rate of over 3.1%.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • September 18, 2019

    September 18, 2019

    DEADLOCK The Constitutional Court in Bucharest is to discuss today the notification filed by PM Viorica Dancila with respect to a possible conflict of powers, triggered by the Presidents refusing to appoint interim ministers. Last week President Klaus Iohannis announced he would not accept the reshuffling proposed by the Prime Minister, which he dismissed as “void and unsuitable. Last Wednesday Viorica Dancila sent the head of state a document nominating members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for the vacant positions in Cabinet after that party left the ruling coalition last month. Also today, the Social Democratic Partys National Executive Committee convenes to discuss the situation of the Cabinet, which has many minister positions still unfilled.



    VISIT The prime Minister of Romania Viorica Dăncila received in Bucharest today her Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki, for a second round of inter-governmental consultations between the 2 countries. This is the second inter-government meeting after the one in Warsaw last May, and it takes place in the context of the celebration of a decade-long strategic partnership, of 3-decades long democratic regime and of a century of diplomatic relations. The members of the 2 governments will sign a memorandum of agreement in major sectors, including infrastructure, energy, transport, communications, digitisation, entrepreneurship and the management of European funds.



    FESTIVAL In Bucharest, classical music lovers are invited today to concerts with highly appreciated artists, as part of the George Enescu International Festival. Todays programme includes a concert of the Lille National Orchestra, conducted by Vlad Vizireanu, at the Romanian Athenaeum. The soloists, Sergey Khachatryan, on violin, and Timothy Ridout, on the viola, will perform George Enescus Chamber Symphony for 12 instruments, Johannes Brahmss Violin Concerto in D major and ‘Harold in Italy’ by Hector Berlioz. The George Enescu International Festival, with Radio Romania as a co-producer, will continue until September 22, bringing together 2,500 of the worlds most celebrated musicians in 84 concerts and recitals. Bucharest and other cities in Romania and in Germany, France, Italy, Canada and the Republic of Moldova are hosting performances as part of this years Festival.



    BILL A bill on the taxation of special pension benefits, introduced by the Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici, has been passed by the Senate today after being approved by the budget committee on Tuesday. The document concerns a 30% tax rate on special pensions ranging between approx. 1,480 euro and 2,115 euro, and a 50% tax rate on pensions above this threshold. Senators also decided that country presidents emoluments in excess of roughly 1,480 euro should be subject to taxation. The bill will be sent to the Chamber of Deputies, the decision making body in this respect.



    EMPLOYMENT Most EU citizens working part time last year (26% of the total) said they could not find full-time jobs, while another 24% chose part-time work because they were looking after children or incapacitated adults, according to data released today by the European Statistics Office, Eurostat. The highest percentage of people who were working part-time in 2018 because they did not find full-time employment was reported in Greece (70%), Italy (66%), Cyprus (65%), Bulgaria (59%), Spain (56.5%) and Romania (54.9%). The lowest rates were reported in Estonia (6%), Belgium, the Czech Republic and Slovenia (7% each) and Netherlands (8%). Around one-fifth of the total number of employed EU citizens had part-time jobs last year, accounting for 31.2 million women and 9.5 million men.



    ISRAEL The Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his challenger Benni Gantz are shoulder to shoulder, with 32 seats each in the new Parliament, according to Tuesdays election results after counting over 92% of the votes. Israeli mass media note however that none of them has enough allies for a governmental majority. Israel Our Home party, whose 9 seats in Knesset make it indispensible for a ruling coalition, proposed a national unity government, but its leader Avigdor Lieberman is one of Netanyahus opponents. According to Radio Romanias correspondent, Israeli citizens would not agree to a new election campaign, and the countrys president vowed to avoid a third early election.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • March 11, UPDATE

    March 11, UPDATE

    BUDGET The President of Romania Klaus Iohannis Monday signed into law the 2019 social security budget bill. As regards the state budget bill, he asked MPs to reanalyse it thoroughly. The head of state once again criticised the Government led by the Social Democrats. The two-chamber Parliament in Bucharest will re-discuss the 2019 budget bill this week at the request of president Iohannis. The government majority formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats say they won’t make any changes to the bill because its current provisions ensure the necessary resources in the important sectors of the economy. The opposition say, however, that the budget cannot come into force in its current version, which is one of stagnation and under-development. Once the bill returns to the president, the latter has to sign it into law. He sent the bill back to Parliament after the Constitutional Court dismissed his objections regarding the way the bill was drawn up. The government say Iohannis’ move is a political gesture ahead of the presidential elections later this year.




    GOVERNMENT The agenda of Tuesdays Cabinet meeting includes several draft resolutions, including one that concerns a financing contract with the European Investment Bank for the rehabilitation of the healthcare sector and another one concerning the organisation and functioning of the National Authority for Child Protection and Adoption. A bill ratifying the agreement signed by Romania and Hungary in October 2018 on the mutual protection of classified information is also on the agenda. Viorica Dăncilăs Cabinet will also discuss a memorandum on the negotiation of a 177-million euro loan agreement between Romania and the Council of Europe Development Bank for a project aimed at upgrading Romanias judicial infrastructure.




    JUDICIARY The independence of the Romanian judiciary must not be affected, and the fight against corruption must carry on, said the first vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, on Monday. He added he did not notice any progress since the latest Cooperation and Verification Mechanism report on Romania, and that he would like EC experts and the Government of Romania to discuss the issues that need to be settled. The European official was granted the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the National School of Political and Administrative Studies. In his address on this occasion, Frans Timmermans spoke about the rule of law, which he believes is one of the decisive topics for the future of Europe.




    COMMEMORATION The European Day of Remembrance for the victims of terrorism is commemorated every year on March 11, under a European Parliament resolution. The original proposal was September 11, the day of the largest-scale terror attacks in the world (USA, 2001), but the 4 attacks perpetrated in Madrid, in the morning of March 11, 2004, which left behind 192 dead, including 16 Romanians, and nearly 2,000 wounded from 17 countries, prompted the change of date. Fifteen years ago, in Madrid, 4 commuter trains were blown up by members of a Jihadi cell inspired by the Al Qaida terrorist network. Three attackers were caught and sentenced to thousands of years behind bars. This was the most severe terrorist attack in Spain, and it made the country pull out its troops from Iraq.




    VOTERS The total number of eligible voters in Romania included in the Electoral Registry on February 28, 2019 was 18,937,258, the Permanent Electoral Authority announced on Monday. At the previous public announcement on the topic, made late last year, the Electoral Registry counted 18,937,058 Romanian voters. The variation comes as a result of changes reported by mayors as regards the number of voters in their localities, and of data imports from the Directorate for Personal Records and Database Management. Of the total number of Romanian voters in the Electoral Registry, 18,266,936 have their declared residence in Romania, and 670,322 abroad.




    BOEING Boeing stock opened 11% down on Monday, after China, Indonesia and Ethiopia requested airlines to ground the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, after a second deadly crash in 5 months. If the same level is reported on closing time, this will be the most severe fall for Boeing shares in nearly 2 decades, ending an upward trend that tripled the share value in little over 3 years, to a record-high 446 US dollars last week. A Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines, heading for Nairobi, went down within minutes after take-off in Addis Ababa, on Sunday, and all the 157 passengers died. The same plane model, operated by Lion Air, had crashed off the Indonesian coast in October, killing all the 189 people on board. Both planes were new and crashed just minutes into the flight.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • The Week in Review: February 18 -22

    The Week in Review: February 18 -22

    The president to refer the state budget bill to the Constitutional Court


    President Klaus Iohannis has decided to refer the budget bill for 2019 to the Constitutional Court before signing it into law. He says the bill drawn up by the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats is a threat to the Romanian economy and that it appears that some of its provisions are unconstitutional, preventing Romania from fulfilling its commitments before the European Union. He also says the budget is unrealistic, overvalued and delayed considering it should have reached Parliament by 15th November last year. According to the president, it is ridiculous to characterise the 2019 budget as investment-orientated in the words of prime minister Viorica Dancila, when the figures in the bill itself point to what can more accurately be described as an austerity budget with subsistence financing, zero investments in some areas, the need for reorganisation and even redundancies owing to the lack of funds for current expenses. The president has accused the government of not having money for investments but allocating large sums for political parties, mainly the Social Democratic Party, the senior partner in the ruling coalition. In response, the speaker of the Senate and leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats has said the presidents gesture is inopportune.




    New changes in the judiciary and reactions from Brussels


    The Government in Bucharest this week issued an emergency decree to bring new changes to the justice laws referring, among other things, to the appointment of top level prosecutors and even the responsibilities of the head of the investigation department. Toader explained that these positions can also be occupied by prosecutors who have not worked as judges, and the people currently delegated to occupy them can only do so for a period of 45 days. The National Anticorruption Directorate says there is no extraordinary situation to justify issuing an emergency order to adopt provisions referring to the dismissal of magistrates or changing the organisation of the prosecutors offices. The DIICOT anti-mafia prosecutors have also criticised the decree saying the changes run counter to the constitutional architecture and place the public ministry in a position in which it will be impossible for it to carry out its specific responsibilities. The Superior Council of Magistrates through its department for prosecutors has warned that the changes made by the government to the justice laws will seriously affect the activity of the prosecutors offices. The European Commission has also reacted. Spokesperson Margaritis Schinas said the community executive is monitoring with great concern the latest developments concerning the rule of law in Romania, both with respect to the content and the procedure of the latest changes, through the use of emergency decrees and without any prior consultations with the representatives of the judiciary and stakeholders. These changes, the Commission official went on to say, seem to run counter to the recommendations made under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, backed by all member states. The main opposition parties, the National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union, have tabled a simple motion in the field of justice, in the Chamber of Deputies. The changes have been criticised by the Romanian President. The magistrates took to the street in large numbers, to protest against the changes which, they say, deeply affect the independence of the judiciary.



    New ministers in Romania


    President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday signed the decrees appointing Vasile-Daniel Suciu as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development and Public Administration and Alexandru-Răzvan Cuc as Transport Minister. Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă has said she made those nominations to put an end to a deadlock, which hindered the proper activity of the government, the more so as the interim period at the two ministries has expired. “Regional Development and Transports are two key domains, for which we have provided the necessary sums of money in the state budget law, to be able to make the investments Romania needs. The ministers with full responsibilities in carrying out their prerogatives should coordinate themselves for a better implementation of investment projects, the Prime Minister has also added. Olguta Vasilescu and Mircea Drăghici had earlier been nominated at the two ministries. They have been however rejected several times by President Klaus Iohannis and in the end they decided to withdraw their candidacies.



    Meeting of the EU trade ministers in Bucharest


    The EU Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström and the director general of the World Trade Organisation, Roberto Azevędo, attended the informal meeting of the EU Trade Ministers, held in Bucharest earlier this week, under the auspices of the Romanian presidency of the Council of the European Union. Talks focused on the modernisation process of the World Trade Organisation and on trade relations between the EU and the US. Also this week, the EU member states validated, during the meeting of the Permanent Representatives Committee, the political agreement secured by Romania and the European Parliament on the Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market. The directive offers correct payment to copyright holders and takes into account private users interests. The directive will have a positive impact on a large category of actors, such as press publishers, cultural institutions, education institutions, artists, performers and professionals in the field of culture.




    (translated by: Diana Vijeu, Cristina Mateescu)

  • The budget bill reaches Parliament

    The budget bill reaches Parliament

    Unless anything unpredictable occurs, Romania will have its state budget for this year on the 15th of February. After being adopted by the government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, the bill has reached Parliament, where it will be amended, examined by the specialist committees and debated in plenary session. The speakers of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies have decided that a final vote will be held on Friday. The budget is based on an economic growth rate of 5.5%, a deficit level of 2.5% and a GDP of more than 200 billion euros. Also, 2% of the GDP is again earmarked for defence in keeping with the commitments made by Romania before its NATO allies.



    The Senate speaker and president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats Calin Popescu-Tariceanu has admitted that the bill can be improved: “Unfortunately, in the last ten years, probably because of the sluggish legislation on public procurement, at the end of each year we realise that the money allocated to various areas, in particular investment, is not spent. It’s probably because of a flaw in the legislation, but also in the way in which the institutions of the central administration are organised, and this is why we run out of money. So, if we are not able to spend all the money, what’s the use of providing for extra money?”



    The number one in the ruling coalition, the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and the president of the Social Democratic Party Liviu Dragnea says the budget bill looks very well, but that some of the additional funds allocated to the intelligence services must be redirected to important areas such as healthcare. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, who have an agreement of parliamentary collaboration with the majority, argue for more money for the local communities.



    Whether Liberals or Social Democrats, the mayors of the big cities are all in agreement on one thing. They say that although the local authorities are to receive more money, city halls are also to take over from the central budget large part of the social expenses. Dragnea’s most vocal rival within the party, Bucharest’s mayor Gabriela Firea, says the city stands to lose 180 million euros, which amounts to almost a quarter of its budget. From the opposition, the National Liberal Party says the budget bill has reached MPs at a very late stage.



    The Liberal MP Raluca Turcan: “Unfortunately, we have increasingly consistent information that both the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats have intentionally submitted the budget bill in conditions of unconstitutionality so as to delay the vote and debate on the budget bill and gain more time with respect to the expenses they must take responsibility for.”



    The People’s Movement Party have already announced that they are considering challenging the bill before the Constitutional Court. The Save Romania Union have virulently criticised the bill, which they say is not about Romania, but the result of the creative imagination of a small group of politicians and contains figures based on highly optimistic scenarios. (Translated by C. Mateescu)

  • October 22, 2018

    October 22, 2018

    STRASBOURG President of Romania Klaus Iohannis will take part on Tuesday in Strasbourg in a debate organised by the European Parliament with respect to the future of the European Union. The head of state will present Romanias views on the topic. It is for the first time that the President of Romania will address the European Parliament, and his participation in the event takes place in the context of a series of debates on the future of the European bloc, in which the leaders of the EU member states are invited to take part. In the plenary session that begins on Tuesday, the MEPs will also discuss the 2019 budget of the Union, ways to reduce the impact of certain plastic products on the environment, and the taxes to be charged for the use of certain infrastructure segments by heavy duty vehicles.




    SECURITY The European Commissioner for Security Union Julian King is on an official visit to Bucharest today. He will discuss with the Interior Minister Carmen Dan topics related to the security of EU citizens, including ways to identify efficient European legislation to fight online radicalisation. Julian King will also have meetings with the head of the Romanian Intelligence Service Eduard Hellvig, with the presidential adviser for national security and with Justice Ministry officials.




    LAW The Parliament of Romania is re-examining the Offshore Bill, after the ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats reached an agreement last week. In early August, President Klaus Johannis did not sign the bill into law and sent it back to Parliament for a review. What is at stake is, first and foremost, the profit that Romania will make from natural gas extraction in the Black Sea. The Energy Minister, Anton Anton, is expected to attend in the Chamber of Deputies today a debate on the Offshore Bill and the solutions for capitalising on the natural gas in the Black Sea. The Deputies in the specialised committees are to decide on the final text of the bill to be subject to the vote in a plenary sitting.




    PROTESTS Several hundreds of people Sunday night took part in a new anti-government protest. The participants voiced their discontent with a recent ruling of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which bans unplanned protests, and with an emergency order issued by the Government concerning changes of regulations in the judiciary. In Cluj Napoca, in the north-west, around 100 people also gathered further to an appeal on social media, to protest the Governments policies in the judiciary.





    TREATY The US national security adviser John Bolton has arrived in Moscow today, where he will be received by the Russian President Vladimir Putin. The latter will request clarifications regarding the USAs plan to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF). The US President Donald Trump announced a few days ago that Washington would withdraw from the INF. The US unilateral withdrawal from the treaty signed with Russia during the Cold War is a mistake, China warned on Monday. The spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hua Chunyiong said Beijing is against this plan. The INF treaty was signed in 1987 by the US President Ronald Reagan and the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The document bans the use of missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,000 km, ending the crisis started in the 1980s by the Soviet deployment of SS-20 nuclear missiles targeting all western capitals. Analysts say the withdrawal could have major implications with respect to the American defence policy in Asia, giving the Pentagon new conventional options to reinstate military balance in the region, where China has invested massively in conventional missiles.




    INVICTUS Romanian troops won the first medal in the 2018 Invictus Palarympics in Sydney, Australia, in the indoor rowing event. In the 4-minute endurance event Dumitru Paraschiva won the 3rd place, and his colleague Ciprian Iriciuc, the 4th place out of 21 competitors. At the Paralympic Games held in October 20-27, Romania is represented by 15 soldiers wounded in theatres of war. Romanian athletes, who take part in the competition for the second time, compete in the archery, cycling, Paralympic athletics, rowing, swimming, and volleyball events.




    HANDBALL The Romanian womens handball team SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea Sunday qualified into the 3rd round of the EHF Cup, after being defeated by the Turkish side Kastamonu Belediyesi, 21-20, in the return leg of the 2nd round. Another Romanian team, Măgura Cisnădie, has also qualified into this stage of the EHF Cup, after winning the 2 legs of the 2nd round against the Czech team Slavia Prague (28-25 and 29-20). SCM Craiova also enters the competition in the 3rd round, after having lost the qualifiers into the Champions League and continues into the EHF Cup. Meanwhile, HC Zalău was defeated away from home by the German team Borussia Dortmund, 24-20, and failed to qualify into the 3rd round of the EHF Cup.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • October 11, 2018

    October 11, 2018

    TRANSPORTS – Intercity passenger transport is severely disrupted in many counties in Romania, where carriers protest the line ministrys plans to change the rules for the award of licenses. The protest was organised after the Transport Ministry announced it would change the scoring system for the companies taking part in bids for transport routes, on grounds that the current system has led to a monopoly in the market. Carriers around the country are waiting for a meeting with PM Viorica Dăncilă, before they make a decision regarding future protests. Meanwhile, the Transport Committee in the Chamber of Deputies has invited the line minister, Lucian Sova, to provide explanations.




    JUDICIARY – The Public Ministry has all the resources required in order to make the Section investigating magistrate offences operational, the Prosecutor General Augustin Lazăr announced today. The statement comes after the Government passed an order on Wednesday regarding the establishment of that section, which is to take over all pending and finalised cases from the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, as of October 23. Augustin Lazăr said the act has already been made public in the Official Journal. Under the law, the new Section is to start working within six months after the law has taken effect, and the Higher Council of Magistrates is yet to initiate the procedures for making it operational. The new unit will be made up of 15 prosecutors, and its chiefs will be appointed further to a selection process run by a commission of 3 judges and a prosecutor from the Higher Council of Magistrates.




    PENSIONS – In Romania, a new Pension Bill is to be sent to Parliament, after having been passed by the Government. The Labour Minister Olguta Vasilescu says no pension will be reduced under the new law, nor will the standard retirement age and contribution period be amended. Novelties include the introduction of masters degree and doctoral degree studies as corresponding to pension fund contribution periods. The new law is to come into force in several stages until 2021, when it has taken full effect. Its provisions will regulate the benefits paid to over 5 million Romanian pensioners.




    COURT – The Constitutional Court of Romania is discussing today the notifications filed by the Supreme Court, the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union and President Klaus Iohannis against a bill amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, as it has been drafted and approved by the ruling coalition. The magistrates claim the text is fraught with ambiguities, whereas the Opposition says the bill helps favour offenders. Also today the Constitutional Court is to discuss the bill on the organisation of courts.




    BREXIT – German Chancellor Angela Merkel says progress has been made in the Brexit negotiations, just one week ahead of a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels for what might be one of the last chances to reach an agreement on the terms of the separation between Britain and the European bloc. Merkel said the 27 remaining EU member countries are very united and that they have great confidence in the EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier. Negotiations are stuck particularly over the Irish border issue and ways to monitor trade over that border.




    FOOTBALL – Romanias national football team is playing today, away from home, against Lithuania, in the UEFA Nations League. On Sunday the Romanians will take on Serbia, in Bucharest. In the group standings, Montenegro and Serbia have 4 points each, Romania 2 and Lithuania nil. Depending on its performance in Nations League, Romania may have a better position in the draw for the Euro 2020 preliminaries. Moreover, if they fail to qualify, the Romanians might still have a chance in the play-offs, provided they finish at least 2nd in their group. Meanwhile, Romanias Under 21 team is playing on Friday against Wales, at home, and on Tuesday against Liechtenstein, in the last games of the 2019 European Championships qualifiers. Top of the group is Bosnia, with 18 points, followed by Romania. The last time Romania took part in a Euro Under 21 final tournament was 20 years ago.




    YOUTH OLYMPICS – The Romanian table tennis player Andreea Dragoman won the bronze in the womens singles event at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. This is the 7th medal for Romania, which Wednesday night was ranking 7th in the nations with 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals. Romanias Youth Olimpics delegation is made up of 34 athletes, 21 girls and 13 boys, competing in 14 events. The Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires conclude on October 18th.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Anti Money Laundering Law

    Anti Money Laundering Law

    Long awaited in Brussels and under public scrutiny in Bucharest, a new text of the law on preventing and fighting money laundering has been endorsed by the Senate, the first Parliament Chamber to debate the bill. Its endorsement had become an emergency after, on August 29th, the European Commission filed a case against Bucharest at the EU Court of Justice, because Romania had failed to transpose the Union’s anti-money laundering directive in its national legislation, an obligation that had to be met as of June 2017.



    If the Court rules against Romania, Bucharest risks fines of millions of Euros, just when it was supposed to hold the presidency of the EU Council, in the first half of 2019, the minister delegate for European affairs Victor Negrescu had recently warned the president of the Social Democratic Party and speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Liviu Dragnea.



    Political sources quoted by the media said in fact that Negrescu would soon have a meeting with the European Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova, precisely on the topic of combating money laundering. In turn, PM Viorica Dancila had pleaded for a quick endorsement of the bill.



    The text was penned by the Government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, but Senators from the ruling parties added amendments challenged by both the Government and the right-of-centre Opposition. A change in the original text concerns the scrapping of an article regarding “politically exposed persons,” which the chair of the Senate’s legal committee and former justice minister Robert Cazanciuc claimed to be “blatantly unconstitutional.” Another amendment passed by Senate introduces precaution measures in relation to occasional transactions of “at least 15,000 euros, whether in a single operation or in several operations that seem to be connected.” The bill also stipulates that bearer share companies have one and a half years to switch to registered shares, otherwise they will be wound up.



    In this context, analysts also mention that as early as this summer the finance minister Eugen Teodorovici explained that the bill that will force the Romanians working abroad, who send home more than 2,000 euros, to declare the source of the money is not designed to allow for amounts above this ceiling to be seized. At the time, he said this is a transposition of a European directive into the national legislation, and that, unless it does so, Romania will receive fines on a daily basis. In April, during a roundtable on the same topic, Teodorovici also emphasised that the money sent home by the Romanians working abroad are earned through honest labour. A World Bank survey indicates that the Romanians working abroad sent back home around 4.9 billion euros last year alone.

  • Sovereign Investment Fund

    Sovereign Investment Fund

    On Wednesday Romania’s Chamber of Deputies, as a decision-making forum, adopted the draft law on setting up the Sovereign Development and Investment Fund. The fund is to receive from the state minority or majority stakes in 33 companies, as well as 9 billion lei in cash, the equivalent of some 2 billion Euros, to be disbursed in the next five years. The list of companies includes resounding names such as Electrica, RomGaz, Nuclear Electrica, OMV Petrom, Antibiotice, CFR- The Romanian Railway Company and Poşta Română- the Romanian Post.



    The Sovereign Fund’s activity and the way in which it fulfils its objectives will be assessed every year by the Finance Ministry, and the results will be forwarded to the Government. Representatives of the Social Democratic Party and of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, in the ruling coalition, have said the Fund gives Romania a chance to develop through investments. According to the Social-Democratic leader Liviu Dragnea the project is one of the pillars of the governing program, the more so as such Funds are functioning successfully the world over:


    Liviu Dragnea: “Similar investment funds are functioning in many countries in Europe, in many countries of the world, and they have helped those countries’ economies. It is a Fund which will contribute to developing Romania’s big infrastructure, to Romania’s re-industrialization process, it will help investments in agriculture, will generate many jobs and will contribute significantly to increasing the gross domestic product.”



    In another move, the right-of-centre opposition accuses it of undermining the national economy. An MP of the Save Romania Union, Cosette Chichirău, claims the Sovereign Development and Investment Fund does not have an economic but a political purpose:



    Cosette Chichirău: “You need liquidities right away to pay electoral handouts, but the budget does no longer allow you to do that. Consequently, you want to create an instrument to indebt yourselves, without including this debt into the public debt. You stretched your arm further than your sleeve will reach and now you have to sell profitable shares to pay for electoral insanity. The Romanian state is being stripped of all its possessions, in all domains.”



    A superstructure or a company above other companies, the Fund, in its first years, before getting consolidated, should not make so-called non-productive investments, even though useful, says economic analyst Constantin Rudniţchi. In other words, why should a hospital or a highway be built with money from the Fund and not from the state budget or with European funds?



    Constantin Rudniţchi: “The logic behind such a Fund is that it should make profitable investments, to bring in money. It becomes a strong Fund on the market, it is traded on solid international markets, thus attracting new investors, bringing much more capital to the Fund, from outside, that is not from the companies which are part of the Fund. It is this money that the Fund should invest, investments that are usually made with money from the budget.”



    Given that the right-of-centre opposition will contest the constitutionality of the draft law setting up the Sovereign Development and Investment Fund, the bill will be sent to president Klaus Iohannis for promulgation only after the Constitutional Court issues its verdict.

  • Reactions to new justice legislation

    Reactions to new justice legislation

    A comprehensive judicial reform plan made public on Wednesday by the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has sparked tough reactions, with President Klaus Iohannis going as far as describing it as “an attack against the rule of law.



    The initiative, which comes 6 months after the left-of-centre government tried to loosen the anticorruption laws, stipulates, among other things, the narrowing of the powers of the National Anticorruption Directorate, which under the new bill would no longer be entitled to investigate judges.



    The proposed changes concern a variety of areas, from the procedure to appoint chief prosecutors to the set-up of a special unit to prosecute offences committed by magistrates. The President was quick to react. “If this mix of measures gets passed by the Cabinet and endorsed by Parliament, Romanias efforts during these past 10 years will be wiped away, and the judiciary will be thrown back to a time when it was subordinated to politics, he said.



    At present, it is the President who appoints the chief prosecutors, based on nominations made by the Justice Minister and the approval of the Superior Council of Magistrates, the institution that safeguards the independence of the judiciary. Under the proposed bills, the President would be left out of this procedure. Furthermore, Toader wants the justice minister, who, as a cabinet member, represents the executive power, to be in charge of the judicial inspection corps. Analysts and magistrates alike see this as an interference of political factors in the judicial system, and the General Prosecutors Office says prosecutors have not been consulted on these alarming proposals.



    In turn, politicians reacted to the announcement. The main opposition party, the National Liberal Party, says that the changes in the justice laws are unconstitutional, insofar as they affect the separation of powers, and that they disregard both the will of the people, so strongly expressed in the streets early this year, and Romanias international commitments. In turn, the Save Romania Union firmly condemns the changes announced by Minister Tudorel Toader and plans a motion against him in Parliament.



    In Brussels, the former Justice Minister Norica Nicolai, currently an MEP in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, believes however that this is a good step forward and hopes the bill to be endorsed quickly and to take effect in 2018, so as to have the European Commission suspend the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. On the other hand, another MEP, Monica Macovei, herself an ex-justice minister, argues that Minister Tudorel Toaders bill brings “changes that are fatal to the judiciary and the country.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • May 23, 2017 UPDATE

    May 23, 2017 UPDATE

    MANCHESTER ATTACK – A suicide bomber is the perpetrator of Monday nights terrorist attack on Manchester Arena at the end of a concert, the British PM Theresa May announced on Tuesday. The attack, claimed by the IS terror group, killed 22 people and wounded some 60 others, some of whom are in a serious condition. Many of the victims are children. The presumed attacker was identified as Salman Abedi, 22, Reuters reports, quoting several American officials. Born in Manchester, he was the son on Libyan refugees who had come to Britain to escape the Gaddafi regime. Security was tightened in Manchester and in the British capital, London. The Conservative PM Theresa May and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn suspended their campaigns for the early parliamentary elections of June 8. This is the worst attack in Britain since the one in London on July 7, 2005, when 52 people died and nearly 700 were wounded. Two months ago, a radical Islamist rammed a vehicle into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing 5 people, including a Romanian. Bucharest joined the international community in condemning Mondays attack, and expressed solidarity with the British people. According to the authorities, there are no Romanians among the victims.




    SALARIES – On Tuesday the Romanian Senate passed the unified pay scale bill, which is supposed to raise salaries gradually for state employees until 2022. The Labour Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu told Senators that the bill was correlated with the new Fiscal Code, and that it would provide a 56% average salary increase. The minister explained that the law was necessary in order to fix a dysfunctional public wage system. The bill goes next to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower chamber. Public administration trade unions expressed their dissatisfaction at the bill, and announced widespread protests next week across the country, including the capital. Union leaders said they expect 120,000 to take part.




    BY-ELECTIONS – In Romania, in 49 localities in 32 counties, local by-elections will be held on June 11, for mayor posts, given that some of the incumbent officials were elected into Parliament in December 2016, and others were sentenced for various offences and can no longer act as mayors. The election campaign begins on May 27 and ends on June 10. Eligible voters in the local elections are only those citizens who live or reside in the respective constituency.




    ECONOMY – The Romanian economic model within the EU was a topic for debate at a conference held at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest by the Association for Economic and Social Studies and Forecasts. Representatives of the government, business people, academics, and civil society activists presented their perspective for the next 10 years with regard to standards of living, education and workforce. According to the latest statistics, Romania has the highest economic growth in the Union. At the same time, the EC has warned Bucharest on the risk of overstepping the stated budget on medium term.




    INVESTIGATION – The former Social Democratic Party chairman Mircea Geoana, defeated in the presidential elections in 2009, and his campaign manager, former Social Democratic MP Viorel Hrebenciuc, were heard on Tuesday by the Parliament committee investigating the elections of 2009. After the hearings, Geoana said there had been a deliberate and coordinated effort at top level to influence the outcome of the 2009 election. In turn, Viorel Hrebenciuc said there had been problems with the polling stations abroad and that he suspected the election had been rigged. On Monday, the committee heard the vice-president of the Permanent Election Authority, Marian Muhulet, and the controversial journalist Dan Andronic, whose allegations led to the creation of the committee. The latter said he has no further information beyond what he had published, and no evidence that the 2009 elections had been tampered with. Andronic used to be a political adviser to former president Traian Basescu, who won the 2009 election. Andronic claimed that, on the night of the second round of elections in 2009, he met in an informal setting with the Prosecutor General Laura Codruta Kovesi, the former director of intelligence George Maior and his first deputy, Florian Coldea, and that the meeting looked like the gathering of a crisis committee. He further claimed that all the people mentioned risked being fired in case Geoana won the elections.




    OO7 – The famous British actor Roger Moore, 89, died on Tuesday in Switzerland after a brief battle with cancer, The Telegraph reports. He shot to fame with his part as agent 007 in several films in the James Bond franchise, between 1973 and 1985. Roger Moore played more than 91 parts in film and television productions, and devoted much of his time to humanitarian work.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)