Radio România Internațional

Tag: children’s allowances

  • January 16, 2020

    January 16, 2020

    DIPLOMACY -President Klaus Iohannis today met
    with ambassadors accredited to Bucharest. On this occasion the President
    ensured ambassadors he would continue to make efforts in 2020 as well in order
    for Romania to remain a vector of stability and a promoter of democracy. As
    regards relations with Chisinau, Romania will resume full cooperation with its
    neighbor when it sees the Government taking concrete actions to consolidate the
    country’s European track. Klaus Iohannis said Romania will preserve only those
    projects directly supporting Moldovan citizens, with an impact at local level,
    as well as projects of strategic inter-connection. The President presented the
    main foreign policy guidelines for 2020, with a focus on consolidating and
    expanding the Strategic Partnership with the United States and increasing the
    role and effectiveness of Romania in the European Union and NATO.




    GOVERNMENT -
    The Liberal Government today will adopt an emergency decree postponing the
    implementation of the law doubling children’s allowances for July 1, when the
    first budget adjustment will be operated. The announcement was made on Wednesday
    by Liberal Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, who explained that although the law
    was ratified by the President, his Cabinet wants to apply it, although no funds
    were made available for this increase, considering the bill was voted after the
    budget for 2020 was adopted. Ludovic Orban said children’s allowances will be
    increased with the first budget adjustment depending on the evolution of the
    economy. Also today the Government will decide the way in which it will promote
    the change in the election law, switching to the two-round system for local
    elections. The Government can choose whether to take responsibility before Parliament
    or adopt the new law by emergency decree. The Social-Democratic Party in
    opposition said it would file a no-confidence motion if the Cabinet changes the
    election law months before the local elections are due, which goes against
    European recommendations. The Liberals claim, however, that the modification
    will improve the legislation, boosting mayors legitimacy and representation.






    COMMAND -
    Romania has today taken over the command of a NATO naval warfare unit and will
    coordinate battleships from five countries. Missions will be staged in the
    Black and Mediterranean seas. The Standing NATO Mine Counter Major Group 2
    command will bring together battleships from Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Spain
    and Turkey. The group will act to ensure immediate response capacity at NATO
    level, as well as increasing inter-operability between NATO ships and promoting
    the image of NATO.






    ACEA – The European
    Automobiles Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has today announced that new car registrations
    increased by 1.2% in 2019 compared to 2018. The biggest increase was reported
    in Lithuania, where new car registrations reported a growth of over 43%,
    followed by Romania, with 23%. According to ACEA, some 161 thousand cars were
    registered in 2019 in Romania. Dacia accounted for nearly 4% of the European
    car market in 2019.






    IRAN – Three
    countries that signed the nuclear agreement with Iran, France, Germany and
    Great Britain, have triggered a formal dispute mechanism over Iran’s breaches
    of the 2015 deal that stipulated its commitment to limit its production of enriched
    uranium. Iran has 60 days to come back into full compliance, after which date
    additional sanctions on this country could be taken. In turn, Teheran warned it
    could launch missiles stored in underground facilities, targeting military
    bases of the United States and its allies in the region.






    TENNIS – Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, seeded 2nd in the
    Adelaide tournament in Australia, was knocked out earlier today in the
    quarterfinals of the competition by Belarus’s Arina Sabalenka, 6-4, 6-2. The
    first edition of this tournament totals some 848 thousand dollars in prize
    money. This was Halep’s last game ahead of the Australian Open, the first Grand
    Slam tournament of the year, due to kick off on January 20. Another two
    Romanians will feature in the main draw, Sorana Cirstea (74 WTA) and Irina Begu
    (105 WTA). Ana Bogdan (96 WTA) will play Ann Li of the US in the final
    preliminary round to accede to the Australian Open’s main draw. Bogdan is
    seeded first in the preliminary phase.


    (Translated
    by V. Palcu)

  • Political topics under debate

    Political topics under debate

    During the Social-Democratic
    Government’s term in office, the Liberals in opposition advanced a bill to
    double children’s allowances. Subsequently, the Social-Democrats were removed
    from office, not without doubling these allowances beforehand. This highly
    populist measure risks destabilizing an already overburdened budget, based on a
    deficit of 3%, the maximum accepted at EU level. Ludovic Orban’s Cabinet
    announced that, although ratified by the president, the law doubling children’s
    allowances will take effect in July at the earliest, with the first budget
    adjustment. Labor Minister Violeta Alexandru:


    Let’s be very clear – we
    completely understand the need to double children’s allowances. Still, since
    the law was passed after we had finalized the budget for 2020, we need to find
    the resources that can cover this increase, which is unsustainable right now.


    The Social-Democrats have accused
    the Liberal Government of irresponsibility and lack of professionalism. In an
    attempt to boost their image in an election year, the Social-Democrats claim
    one solution to make more funds available for the doubling of children’s
    allowances would be to repeal the law on special pensions. Interim
    Social-Democrat leader and Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marcel Ciolacu said
    Parliament would convene in an extraordinary sitting at the end of January to
    debate the draft law on repealing special pensions, with the exception of
    military and law enforcement. All political parties are now questioning special
    pensions benefiting certain categories of public employees, mainly magistrates,
    which are outrageously high compared to normal pension, considering they shun
    the principle of fair contribution. The same parties however introduced the
    special pensions, whenever international rules and regulations so demanded or
    the measure would boost their election scores. Another bone of contention
    between power and opposition right now revolves over the Liberals’ intention to
    modify the election law, thus reintroducing the organization of local elections
    in two separate rounds. Marcel Ciolacu said he would send a letter to European
    bodies informing them of the Liberals’ intention to amend the election legislation
    months before the local elections are scheduled to take place, which goes against
    recommendations. The Social-Democrats believe such an undertaking would affect
    credibility in Romanian democracy and the rule of law. The Social-Democrats said
    they would file a no-confidence motion if the Government will assume
    responsibility in Parliament over the modified election law. Social-Democrat
    leader Marcel Ciolacu:


    You have no right whatsoever in a
    democratic and European state to modify the election law two or three months
    before the election is due. This has never happened in the history of Romania
    and we hope it won’t happen now either.


    A potential demise of the Orban
    Cabinet would trigger early elections, a scenario that favors the Liberals and
    less so the Social-Democrats, which are still trying to recover from the
    repeated blows they were dealt in 2019.