Radio România Internațional

Tag: compulsory

December 30, 2023 UPDATE

INVOICING Electronic invoicing will become compulsory in Romania as of January 1 for all B2B transactions. The system entails benefits particularly in terms of curbing VAT frauds, the finance minister Marcel Boloş told a press conference. He also said that those who will not use the e-Invoicing system may receive penalties of 3 to 10 years in prison, if the new law on fighting economic and financial crime passes the Constitutional Court review. The authorities count on additional revenues of EUR 1 bln. Minister Boloş also said that in December the national tax authoritys directorate for large taxpayers secured a record-high total of EUR 3.2 bln in state budget revenues. In fact, this month was also exceptional in terms of revenues from EU funding, which exceeded EUR 2.6 bln.

INSURANCE The government extended a cap on the price of compulsory motor insurance policies, which will stay at the level in February 2023 until March next year. The cap will stay in place for as long as it is necessary for market regulation, but in 3-month stages, the government spokesman Mihai Constantin announced. The Cabinet also passed a bill making insurance compulsory for electric bikes and scooters, but exempting electrically powered wheelchairs used by people with disabilities from compulsory insurance.

POLICE Close to 24,000 interior ministry staff will be on duty during the 4-day New Years holiday, while road traffic will be monitored by 360 radar speed guns and DUI check teams. Also, around 5,000 fire-fighters are on duty every day around the country, to provide emergency assistance if necessary. The border police also took steps to enhance border monitoring and to streamline vehicle and person transit at checkpoints. Meanwhile, the authorities announced having seized over 100 tonnes of fireworks kits and opening more than 500 criminal investigations in this respect, and have once again called on parents not to buy firecrackers for their children as such materials may be extremely dangerous.

POLL The activities carried out part of the Timişoara – European Capital of Culture 2023 programme, including the Constantin Brâncuşi exhibition, received the most votes (29%) to be designated the event of the year 2023 in Romania, in a survey carried out by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy (IRES). According to the poll, the second event that marked Romania in 2023 was the qualification of the national football team to the final tournament of the European Championship – UEFA EURO 2024, which will take place next summer in Germany (24% of responses). Regarding culture and free time, 58% of the survey respondents said that they read at least one book in 2023, and 41% that they also bought books, 36% went to a show, and 20% went to a stadium or attended a sports competition. More than three quarters of the survey participants (76%) stated that they went to church this year.

UKRAINE Fridays massive Russian strikes on Ukraine, which killed at least 30 people and wounded over 160 others, are “appalling assaults” the UN deputy secretary general Mohamed Khiari said in a Security Council meeting in New York. Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation as the largest Russian air attack since the start of the war, with close to 160 missiles and drones hitting a maternity ward, educational facilities, and other industrial, military and civilian targets. NATO member Poland also reported the violation of the Polish airspace by a Russian missile. The strikes triggered large-scale international condemnation, with the US president Joe Biden calling on Congress to take immediate steps to send fresh aid to Kyiv. Meanwhile, Russias ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya blamed the toll on the misuse of Ukraines air defence systems, “the use of which has led to the deaths of civilians.” (AMP)

30 December 2023
December 30, 2023

AUTONOMY Romanias Senate Friday dismissed 3 bills tabled by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romaniaregarding the autonomy of the Szeklers Land, a region in the centre of the country. At the plenary talks, the MPs from all the other parties stressed that the bills came against several articles in the Constitution and harmed the rule of law, while the initiators argued the opposite, saying that territorial autonomy did not entail changes in the national borders, but was a right which worked in a number European states. The bills provided for the “Covasna and Harghita counties and a part of Mureş county becoming autonomous, as part of a region with legal personality.” In that presumed autonomous entity, the Hungarian language would have had the same status as the official language of the Romanian state. The land would also have its own president. The so-called Szeklers Land, the only area in Romania where the Hungarian population is the majority, was autonomous between 1952 and 1968. According to historians, this was an experiment imposed in Soviet-occupied Romania by the dictator Joseph Stalin, at the insistence of the communist leaders in Budapest. The ethnic Hungarian population in Romania has been represented, without interruption, in the Parliament of post-communist Romania, by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians. Since 1996, the UDMR has been part of numerous coalition governments in Bucharest, whether right-wing or left-wing.

INSURANCE The government extended a cap on the price of compulsory motor insurance policies, which will stay at the level in February 2023 until March next year. The cap will stay in place for as long as it is necessary for market regulation, but in 3-month stages, the government spokesman Mihai Constantin announced. The Cabinet also passed a bill making insurance compulsory for electric bikes and scooters, but exempting electrically powered wheelchairs used by people with disabilities from compulsory insurance.

POLICE Close to 24,000 interior ministry staff will be on duty during the 4-day New Years holiday, while road traffic will be monitored by 360 radar speed guns and DUI check teams. Also, around 5,000 fire-fighters are on duty every day around the country, to provide emergency assistance if necessary. The border police also took steps to enhance border monitoring and to streamline vehicle and person transit at checkpoints. Meanwhile, the authorities announced having seized over 100 tonnes of fireworks kits and opening more than 500 criminal investigations in this respect, and have once again called on parents not to buy firecrackers for their children as such materials may be extremely dangerous.

POLL The activities carried out part of the Timişoara – European Capital of Culture 2023 programme, including the Constantin Brâncuşi exhibition, received the most votes (29%) to be designated the event of the year 2023 in Romania, in a survey carried out by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy (IRES). According to the poll, the second event that marked Romania in 2023 was the qualification of the national football team to the final tournament of the European Championship – UEFA EURO 2024, which will take place next summer in Germany (24% of responses). Regarding culture and free time, 58% of the survey respondents said that they read at least one book in 2023, and 41% that they also bought books, 36% went to a show, and 20% went to a stadium or attended a sports competition. More than three quarters of the survey participants (76%) stated that they went to church this year.

UKRAINE Fridays massive Russian strikes on Ukraine, which killed at least 30 people and wounded over 160 others, are “appalling assaults” the UN deputy secretary general Mohamed Khiari said in a Security Council meeting in New York. Ukraines president Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the situation as the largest Russian air attack since the start of the war, with close to 160 missiles and drones hitting a maternity ward, educational facilities, and other industrial, military and civilian targets. NATO member Poland also reported the violation of the Polish airspace by a Russian missile. The strikes triggered large-scale international condemnation, with the US president Joe Biden calling on Congress to take immediate steps to send fresh aid to Kyiv. Meanwhile, Russias ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya blamed the toll on the misuse of Ukraines air defence systems, “the use of which has led to the deaths of civilians.” (AMP)

30 December 2023
Government caps third-party motor insurance prices

The Romanian finance ministry made public a draft resolution capping and freezing the price of third-party liability insurance policies for 6 months. This is the temporary solution identified by the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF), after withdrawing the license of Euroins, an insurer that held one-third of the countrys relevant market.

The decision was made in order to protect car owners from skyrocketing prices, in an attempt to avoid a crisis similar to the one witnessed 2 years ago, when another company, City Insurance, also a market leader at the time, ended up in the same situation.

The finance minister Adrian Câciu: “There will be a government resolution in this respect and I expect it to be passed next week at the latest. This resolution aims at protecting consumers temporarily, enabling the ASF to come up with an action plan so that at the end of this intervention the market may function to the benefit of consumers.”

The resolution on freezing the price of compulsory vehicle insurance policies will take effect 5 days after its publication in the Official Journal. Specifically, insurance companies will be bound to keep policy prices at the level reported for March 1, 2022, provided that level is below the current one, in which case the lower price will apply.

The explanatory memorandum to the draft government resolution includes data illustrating the disrupting impact of the previous incident on the market. In 2022, prices for individual consumers went up by an average one-third compared to the previous year. But if we compare the average figures for February 2023 with the first half of 2021, i.e. before City Insurance lost its license, prices went up 98%.

The head of the Competition Council, Bogdan Chiriţoiu, warns however that during the 6 months when the capping applies, measures must be taken to ensure the third-party liability insurance market functions properly. In his opinion, there are well-known flaws in the relevant legislation, which need addressing, but tackling them requires courage.

One of these is that the insurer has to cover the costs of repair works regardless of the prices charged by automobile repair shops. Another is that current regulations fail to set reference levels for the elements on which policy prices are based.

Bogdan Chiriţoiu also said that the Competition Council has issued the largest number of fines against insurance companies, most recently in December, and that all the companies selling third-party liability insurance policies have been fined a combined EUR 20 mln. (AMP)

23 March 2023
New calls for vaccination

The COVID-19 pandemic has stayed on a
downward trend in Romania for several weeks. Both the number of new cases, and
the number of patients in hospitals and of fatalities have been decreasing.

In this context, interest in vaccination is also decreasing: numbers are
now significantly below the daily average of 16,000 people who got their first
dose of the vaccine last week.

Nearly a year since the start of the vaccine roll-out, some 7.5 million
Romanians are fully vaccinated, which is much less than half the eligible
population of over 12 years of age.

The coordinator of the national vaccination programme, Valeriu
Gheorghiţă, hopes however that a vaccination rate of at least 50% will be
reached by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Romanian authorities once again urge people to get vaccinated
and to observe protection measures. The PM Nicolae Ciucă and the new health
minister, Alexandru Rafila, have called for support for vaccination from
religious denominations. They also discussed with local religious leaders about
introducing the digital certificate as a prerequisite for access to churches
and other places of worship.

In turn, the representatives of various religious denominations
requested that citizens be allowed to take part in religious services without a
digital certificate. PM Nicolae Ciucă promised that a decision will be made by
the end of the month.

Nicolae Ciucă: We had talks and representatives of
religious denominations requested that citizens be free to attend religious services
without a compulsory digital certificate. We asked religious officials to help us
save as many lives as possible.

In turn, Alexandru Rafila believes people should attend religious
services without being required to have a COVID certificate, because religious freedom
is essential.

Alexandru Rafila: I believe this is ultimately a
political decision, and that it should be made within a consultative and
inclusive mechanism, rather than as a discretionary policy. It should be a
decision which is known, understood and observed by everybody, and religious
freedom is one of the essential elements. We cannot speak about this in the same
terms as access to essential shops, let’s say. We believe access to religious
services should take this into account.

As for making vaccination compulsory, as discussed by some European
Commission representatives, Alexandru Rafila believes each member state is
entitled to have its own public health policies. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

3 December 2021
New calls for vaccination

The COVID-19 pandemic has stayed on a
downward trend in Romania for several weeks. Both the number of new cases, and
the number of patients in hospitals and of fatalities have been decreasing.

In this context, interest in vaccination is also decreasing: numbers are
now significantly below the daily average of 16,000 people who got their first
dose of the vaccine last week.

Nearly a year since the start of the vaccine roll-out, some 7.5 million
Romanians are fully vaccinated, which is much less than half the eligible
population of over 12 years of age.

The coordinator of the national vaccination programme, Valeriu
Gheorghiţă, hopes however that a vaccination rate of at least 50% will be
reached by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Romanian authorities once again urge people to get vaccinated
and to observe protection measures. The PM Nicolae Ciucă and the new health
minister, Alexandru Rafila, have called for support for vaccination from
religious denominations. They also discussed with local religious leaders about
introducing the digital certificate as a prerequisite for access to churches
and other places of worship.

In turn, the representatives of various religious denominations
requested that citizens be allowed to take part in religious services without a
digital certificate. PM Nicolae Ciucă promised that a decision will be made by
the end of the month.

Nicolae Ciucă: We had talks and representatives of
religious denominations requested that citizens be free to attend religious services
without a compulsory digital certificate. We asked religious officials to help us
save as many lives as possible.

In turn, Alexandru Rafila believes people should attend religious
services without being required to have a COVID certificate, because religious freedom
is essential.

Alexandru Rafila: I believe this is ultimately a
political decision, and that it should be made within a consultative and
inclusive mechanism, rather than as a discretionary policy. It should be a
decision which is known, understood and observed by everybody, and religious
freedom is one of the essential elements. We cannot speak about this in the same
terms as access to essential shops, let’s say. We believe access to religious
services should take this into account.

As for making vaccination compulsory, as discussed by some European
Commission representatives, Alexandru Rafila believes each member state is
entitled to have its own public health policies. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

3 December 2021
March 3, 2020

HEARINGS The ministers nominated in PM designate Florin Cîţus cabinet are interviewed by the specialised parliamentary committees today, on Wednesday and Thursday, and the day of the investiture vote is to be chosen early next week. The only change compared to the Ludovic Orban Government is at the finance ministry, where former minister Cîţu has been replaced with Lucian Ovidiu Heiuş. The president of Save Romania Union, Dan Barna, says the Liberals have not asked explicitly for support for the new cabinet. The leader of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, Kelemen Hunor, says that no decision has been made yet as to endorsing the new government or not. Pro Romania MPs will attend the parliamentary sitting, but will vote against the cabinet, party leader Victor Ponta announced. The Social Democrats and ALDE were the only parties with which the PM designate has not discussed. The Peoples Movement Party decided to vote in favour of the Cîţu Cabinet. The latters nomination by president Klaus Iohannis came after the Constitutional Court found it unconstitutional for the president to designate the interim PM Ludovic Orban to form a new cabinet after being dismissed by Parliament through a no-confidence vote.

COVID-19 In Romania, 42 people are in quarantine centres and over 9,400 are under home monitoring, the Strategic Communication Group announced on Tuesday. So far 3 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Romania, one of whom has recovered and the other 2 are hospitalised and in a good state. Meanwhile, the National Emergency Committee has introduced strict quarantine rules for the people returning home from risk areas. The new coronavirus is now spreading a lot more quickly outside China than in the source country. Around 91,000 cases have been confirmed in over 70 countries worldwide. Of these, 48,000 patients recovered and over 3,100 died. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank announced they are ready to provide help, including emergency funds, for member states to tackle the difficulties caused by the quickly spreading epidemic.

VACCINATION The healthcare committee in the Chamber of Deputies unanimously voted the introduction of an amendment making immunisation mandatory. The Chamber of Deputies is to cast the decisive vote on the bill. Representatives of the Parents Alliance, of Pro Consumers Association and of the “Informed Decisions Association protested the current form of the bill, opposing the idea of compulsory vaccination. They believe each citizen must have the right to decide as concerns their own body. On the other hand, an association called Mothers for Mothers warns that vaccination saves lives and the body of scientific evidence in this respect goes back over a century.

INTERIOR MINISTRY The interim interior minister Marcel Vela has today presented the institutions annual report, and said in 2019 the work load of interior ministry staff was higher than in the previous year. Marcel Vela explained that 27 counties and the capital city Bucharest reported over 4% rises in street crime and crimes against persons and property. “The presidential election was well organised, with 30% fewer incidents in the first round and 54.18% fewer incidents in the second round than in 2014, Marcel Vela added. The National Police Union organised a protest concurrently with the meeting at the ministry headquarters. They demand the implementation of current regulations regarding salaries, and the payment of overdue benefits for the last 3 years.

UNEMPLOYMENT The January unemployment rate in Romania was 3.9%, down 0.1% since December, the National Statistics Institute announced in Tuesday. According to the institution, the estimated number of unemployed people in January was 350,000, which is lower than both the previous month and the corresponding month of 2019. Statistics also indicate that in the first month of the year the unemployment rate among men was 1% higher than among women.

ISRAEL The Israeli PM Beniamin Netanyahu claimed victory in the 3rd election within a year, held on Monday. With 90% of the votes counted, Netanyahus right-wing party Likud secured 35 out of the 120 seats in Parliament, as against 32 for Kahol Lavan, led by his challenger Benny Gantz. None of them however has the required majority to form a government. Netanyahu tried to secure his re-election while facing a corruption trial. In his address, Netanyahu promised to put an end to the Iranian nuclear threat, to build peace with moderate Arab countries, economic reforms, a defence pact with the USA, and also spoke about his proposal to annex settlements in the West Bank.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

3 March 2020