Radio România Internațional

Tag: Council of Europes Parliamentary Assembly

  • Ukraine’s education law, on the Council of Europe’s agenda

    Ukraine’s education law, on the Council of Europe’s agenda

    The new education law passed by Ukraine this fall and seen by most experts as at least uninspired has also become a topic for debate in Strasbourg. The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly will hold a debate on this controversial law on Thursday, during its autumn session. The debate, initiated by the Romanian delegation, has been prompted by concerns raised by the drastic restriction of the national minorities’ right to tuition in their mother tongue. Under this piece of legislation, ethnic minority children can only study in their mother tongue in nursery and primary school, after which tuition exclusively in the Ukrainian language becomes compulsory.



    Senator Titus Corlatean, who heads the Romanian delegation and is also Vice-President of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, has told Radio Romania’s correspondent in Strasbourg what he expects from Thursday’s debate: “I am hoping for a fair debate that would persuade the Ukrainian authorities to revise this law, accept the Venice Commission’s expertise and change this law that drastically restricts the rights and protection of national minorities in Ukraine, including the Romanian one.”



    Almost half a million ethnic Romanians live in the neighbouring Ukraine, mostly in the eastern Romanian territories annexed by the former Soviet Union in 1940 through an ultimatum and inherited by Ukraine in 1991 as a successor state.



    Analysts say that in the context of an open conflict with Russia, this act of intolerance of the Ukrainian authorities would in fact target only the millions of ethnic Russians in the east and south of the country, with the communities of Romanians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Poles being only collateral victims. Last month, the Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu and his counterparts in Budapest, Sofia and Athens signed a joint letter in which they voiced their concern regarding this new education law.



    Also in September, in Bucharest, Romania’s Parliament called on Ukraine to revise the law. Romanian deputies and senators announced they were closely monitoring, not without concern, the evolutions triggered by this new law and called for a quick solution to the situation, by actions done in good faith, in the spirit of cooperation, and by strictly observing the EU norms in the field of national minority protection. In his turn, President Klaus Iohannis postponed for an indefinite period his visit to Kiev, that was supposed to take place this month.

  • January 25, 2017 UPDATE

    January 25, 2017 UPDATE

    COUNCIL OF
    EUROPE     Romania’s President Klaus
    Iohannis said on Wednesday in plenary session of the Council of Europe’s
    Parliamentary Assembly that the world needs democratic societies, where
    majorities do not take undue advantage of their rights, societies where the
    principle of loyal and constructive cooperation between democratic institutions
    works flawlessly. The President said that Romania has turned into a role-model
    as regards the protection and promotion of national minorities’ rights, a model
    acknowledged at European level. Also, the head of state announced that on April
    6th, together with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe
    Thorbjorn Jagland, will inaugurate in Bucharest an international conference
    organized in cooperation with the Venice Commission on the roles played by the
    majority and the opposition in a democratic society. On Tuesday, on the first
    day of his visit to Strasbourg, the Romanian head of state met with Romanians
    working at the Council of Europe and with representatives of the Romanian
    community in Alsace. Also, he attended the ceremony marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.








    GOVERNMENT ORDINANCES On Wednesday, Romania’s Superior Council of
    Magistracy, which has a consultative role in the debate on the draft government
    ordinances on pardoning and amending the Criminal Code, advised against the
    proposed changes. Among other things, according to the drafts set forth by the
    new left-wing Government in Bucharest, convicts sentenced to less than 5 years
    in prisons would be pardoned. The pardon would not benefit repeat offenders and
    those who committed certain offences stipulated by the Criminal Code or by
    special laws. One of the proposed amendments to the Criminal Code stipulates
    that a case of abuse of office will be considered a criminal offence only if
    the damage exceeds 44,000 thousand Euros, and the maximum sentence will no
    longer be 7, but 3 years in prison for such an offence. The two draft emergency
    ordinances have been vehemently criticized by the opposition and citizens. Last
    week, dozens of thousands of people marched the streets of Bucharest protesting
    against these measures and President Klaus Iohannis joined them. The Justice
    Minister Florin Iordache claims that these changes are necessary in order to
    solve the issue of prison overcrowding and to get the legislation in line with
    certain rulings of the Constitutional Court.










    CVM REPORT Romania continues to make progress in
    reforming the judiciary and fighting corruption, but criticism leveled by
    politicians and the press against judicial institutions, the National
    Anticorruption Directorate in particular, might undermine trust in the justice
    system. This is one of the conclusion of the European Commission’s report on
    progress in Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM),
    presented in Brussels on Wednesday. According to the report, the fact that many
    top-level politicians in Romania have been indicted and convicted is a sign
    that, as regards the independence of the judiciary, the trend is positive. In
    ten years of EU membership and by implementing reforms under the CVM, Romania
    has made major progress, reads the report drawn up by the European Commission,
    according to which the positive trend of the past three years will also be
    reflected in the 2017 report. Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis, the left-wing
    Government in Bucharest and the main judicial institutions in the country have
    appreciated the report. The next CVM report is to be drawn up at the end of
    2017. We recall that Romania’s judiciary system has been monitored since 2007,
    when the country joined the EU.








    2017 BUDGET Romania’s revised
    draft budget will be debated by Government on Friday, and will be submitted to
    Parliament on the same day, Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu has announced. He
    has also said that most of the money will go to the ministries of transport,
    agriculture and health and to SMEs. The Presidential Administration and the
    Romanian Intelligence Service, on the other hand, will get lower budgets, the
    Prime Minister has also stated.








    BREXIT The British Government has announced that
    it will present on Thursday the bill under which it calls for Parliament’s
    approval to officially start negotiations on withdrawing from the European
    Union. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled that Prime
    Minister Theresa May must ask for Parliament’s approval to trigger article 50
    of the Lisbon Treaty. Brexit Minister David Davis has stated that the British
    Parliament will have to vote on the simplest bill possible. We recall that Theresa
    May has repeatedly stated that the withdrawal procedure will start by late
    March, and negotiations with Brussels will last two years.










    CORRUPTION
    PERCEPTIONS INDEX     The rise of
    populism in many countries is a reason for concern, according to Transparency
    International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index made public on Wednesday. Corruption and inequality feed off each other to
    create a vicious circle between corruption, unequal distribution of power in
    society, and unequal distribution of wealth. This makes people feel
    disappointed and turn towards populist trends, which are by no means the right
    remedy, the report says. The Corruption Perceptions
    Index 2016 covers perceptions of public sector corruption in 176 countries.Denmark and New Zealand perform best
    with scores of 90, closely followed by Finland (89) and Sweden (88).For the tenth year running, Somalia is the worst
    performer on the index, scoring only 10 this year. Romania is on the 57th
    position.

  • January 25, 2017

    January 25, 2017

    PRESIDENCY – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday addressed the plenary session of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. This is the central point of the President’s visit to Strasbourg. On Tuesday, Iohannis discussed with the Council’s secretary general, Thorbjorn Jagland, about consolidating the concrete cooperation with this institution. The Romanian President has announced that an international conference on the role of the majority and the opposition in a genuinely democratic society, organised jointly with the Venice Commission, will be held in Bucharest on April the 6th. In turn, Thorbjorn Jagland has hailed the important role that Romania plays as country that holds the presidency of the International Alliance for the Memory of the Holocaust. Iohannis met in Strasbourg with Romanians working at the Council of Europe and with representatives of the Romanian community in the region of Alsace. The head of state also attended a ceremony marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.




    REPORT – The rise of populist politicians in many countries is a reason for concern, according Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index made public today. Corruption and inequality feed off each other, creating a vicious circle between corruption, unequal distribution of power in society, and unequal distribution of wealth, the report says. “In too many countries, people are deprived of their most basic needs and go to bed hungry every night because of corruption, while the powerful and corrupt enjoy lavish lifestyles with impunity,” said José Ugaz, Chair of Transparency International. According to the report, what is urgently needed are deep-rooted systemic reforms that even up the growing imbalance of power and wealth by empowering citizens to stop the widespread impunity for corruption, hold the powerful to account, and have a real say in the decisions that affect their daily lives.




    LAWS – Romania’s Higher Council of Magistracy, at the request of the Justice Ministry, is today looking into the draft emergency orders proposed by the government, on granting collective pardon and revising the Criminal Code. The Social Democratic Justice Minister, Florin Iordache, says that these emergency orders are needed in order to ease overcrowding in prisons. The countrys prosecutor general, the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, the Supreme Court, and the chief of the directorate fighting organised crime, as well as magistrates associations and civil rights groups are firmly against the move, arguing that there is a lack of transparency as to the legal framework regarding offences such as corruption, abuse of power and integrity. Tens of thousands of people marched the streets of the capital Bucharest on Sunday in protest at the government’s recent plans.




    EC REPORT — Romania continues to make progress in reforming its judicial system and in fighting corruption, but the criticism levelled by politicians and the media at the judicial institutions, the National Anti Corruption Directorate in particular, risks undermining general trust in justice. This statement is part of the European Commission’s report on the progress made by Romania within the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), presented today in Brussels. According to the document, the prosecution and conviction of Romanian top-level politicians proves that the judiciary’s tendency towards independence is positive.




    INTELLIGENCE SERVICE – The Commission for the control of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) is today hearing the institution’s leaders in relation to the Florian Coldea case and the SRI’s budget. We remind you that at the request of the SRI chief, Eduard Hellvig, the first deputy director of this institution, general Florian Coldea, was put in reserve, after he had previously asked that. According to a release of the Intelligence Service, Coldea took this decision for reasons of “dignity and military honour, and the risk of bringing serious damage to the institution’s work.” The move comes after a series of allegations against him launched by runaway Romanian businessman Sebastian Ghita. A SRI internal investigation found Coldea not guilty.


    (Translated by Elena Enache)