PROTESTS On Sunday Romanians took to the streets of Bucharest, other cities in the country and abroad to protest the draft amendments to the country’s legal laws endorsed by the PSD-ALDE government. Initiated by the country’s justice minister Tudorel Toader, under the new amendments, currently waiting for Parliament approval, the Higher Council of the Magistrates will no longer be in charge of carrying out legal inspections, which are to be taken over by the Justice Ministry instead while the country’s president will no longer have a say in the process of appointing the heads of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the anti-corruption and anti-mafia agencies. The right-wing opposition has announced its support for the participation of its members and sympathizers in the protests staged by civil society under the motto, ‘we don’t want to be a nation of thieves’. At the beginning of the year, a government attempt to amend the criminal codes, prompted the largest anti-government rallies in post-communist Romania. The protesters have accused the government of trying to bail out high-ranking politicians and administration officials accused of corruption.
FOOTBALL Romania’s national football side convenes in Bucharest on Monday to train for the home friendlies against Turkey and the Netherlands. The Romanians will play Turkey, currently coached by Romanian selector Mircea Lucescu, on November 9th and will be up against the Dutch representative five days later in Bucharest. We recall that all the three sides have failed to qualify for the World Cup due in Russia next year. Romania ended on the fourth position in its group after a lackluster campaign led by the first foreign coach in its history, German Cristoph Daum, who was later replaced by former Romanian international Cosmin Contra.
VISIT Over November 10th and 19th, a delegation of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the main opposition party in the Romanian Parliament, will be paying a visit to the USA. Headed by Liberal leader Ludovic Orban, the delegation will be having talks with members of the US Senate and Congress, state department officials, representatives of NGOs, the business environment and the Romanian communities in the USA. Strengthening the special partnership Romania has with the United States is a key priority in the PNL’s foreign policy; in this respect the party will step up the development of bilateral relations in several areas of mutual interest. At the same time the PNL considers as very important the relation with the Romanian Diaspora in the United States, which is a major resource in the process of developing and deepening the relations between the two countries, a PNL communiqué says.
FISCAL MEASURES The Executive in Bucharest is having talks on Monday over the new fiscal provisions in a session that was initially scheduled for the end of last week, but later postponed because several issues under discussion hadn’t got the green light. The new fiscal provisions announced by the government have attracted a lot of heat from trade unions and employers’ associations alike. Trade unions are gearing up for a general strike as they are disgruntled with a provision according to which social insurance contributions are to be passed from employers to employees, which, in their opinion, will lead to more pay and job cuts. Employers associations have announced they will slash jobs if the new fiscal provisions are implemented, while the National Liberal Party, the main opposition force in Parliament, has threatened to notify the Constitutional Court unless the government gives up its plans. However, the ruling Social Democrats believe the measures will be beneficial both for the employees and the business environment.
DIASPORA 35 Start-up Diaspora programmes, through which the authorities in Bucharest want to encourage the Romanians who left the country to come back and open a business in their native country, have been approved and are to be implemented, Andrea Pastarnac, the Minister for the Romanians Abroad, has announced. In an interview to Radio Romania, the minister has said the operational Diaspora Start-up programme will be promoted within the communities of Romanians living abroad and that the dialogue with experts from the field ministries will continue to improve cooperation between those representing various entrepreneurship schemes and the organisations of the Romanians involved.
