Radio România Internațional

Tag: delay

  • The staged increase of children’s allowance repelled by Parliament

    The staged increase of children’s allowance repelled by Parliament


    The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest has repelled, in its capacity of decision-making body, the Governments emergency executive order on the staged increase of childrens allowance. Accordingly, the law remains effective, compelling the Government to double childrens allowance, just as it is stipulated in a normative act Parliament passed last year. As for the bill voted in the Chamber of Deputies, it is yet to be promulgated. Childrens allowance was supposed to be increased as early as March 1 this year, from 150 to 300 lei. Disabled children were supposed to receive 600 lei, up from 300 lei. The Government has delayed the implementation date, claiming the lack of funding. President Klaus Iohannis stated the Government acted to the best of its abilities, providing the allowance increase with budgetary resources that were limited by the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Iohannis believed that the repelling by the opposition Social-Democratic Party of the staged increase of childrens allowance was a populist undertaking.



    Klaus Iohannis:



    “The Social Democrats way of doing things, that is repelling, conveyor-belt fashion, of such executive orders, seems like a blunt approach to me, to put it at the mildest. They, just like the government, know all too well we dont have money at our fingertips for that. We are going through an economic crisis, we have problems caused by the epidemic, nay, by the pandemic, as were not the only ones having to go through all that, as the way things develop in other countries influence us as well. “



    Childrens allowance will be doubled, but that will happen in stages. As for the MPs casting their vote in favor of populist laws, they should donate money from their incomes, so that the budget may have more money for the allowance to be doubled, Public Finance Minister Florin Citu said in turn, as a guest in a private TV station show. Citu went on to say the law by means of which childrens allowance was doubled in 2020 was unconstitutional, because it was voted in Parliament with no existing source of financing. Public Finance Minister Citu also said, QUOTE, Even in the situation were having today, that of going through a global economic crisis, considering domestic economy has been closed down for two months, in a bid to keep Romanians healthy, taking into account weve seen a drop in budget revenues, nevertheless, we could find resources for a 20% increase in childrens allowance, UNQUOTE.



    General debates held in the Chamber of Deputies plenary session were preceded by a requirement from the governing National Liberal Party, whereby the draft for the emergency executive order should be resubmitted to the commission. The requirement did not enjoy that much success at the ballot, and was followed by accusations of populism and corruption launched from the Parliamentary stands. The leader of liberal deputies, Florin Roman, lambasted the Social Democrats for their political scheming, as local elections were drawing near. Roman also cautioned against the fact that an allowance increase had to be implemented so that the state budget may not be affected. In turn, the Social Democrats rejected the accusations, calling on the government to find the money that were needed for the increase of childrens allowance. Save Romania Union MPs abstained from voting. As for the Peoples Movement Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, they voted in favor of doubling childrens allowance, calling on the government to refrain from being tight-fisted at the expense of the countrys 3.6 million children.


    (Translation by Eugen Nasta).




  • August 17, 2019

    August 17, 2019

    VISIT The head of the Romanian state, Klaus Iohannis, will be on an official visit to Washington D.C. on August 19 and 20, at the invitation of the US president, Donald J. Trump. The 2 leaders will have a meeting on August 20, to discuss ways to strengthen and further develop the strong and dynamic strategic partnership between Romania and the US, in all its components. The Romanian president will emphasise on this occasion that his country will remain a reliable ally and strategic partner of the USA, one of the priorities of Romanias foreign policy being to consolidate the trans-Atlantic relation and Euro-Atlantic security. Klaus Iohannis said he also intended to talk to Donald J. Trump about the American troops in Romania and about the countrys capacity to host more US troops. The issue of US visa requirements for Romanian citizens will also be approached. Meanwhile, according to the White House, the US president looks forward to celebrating the 30th year since the fall of communism and the 15th year of Romanias NATO membership with president Iohannis. Klaus Iohannis and Donald Trump previously met at the White House in 2017, when they discussed the prospects for deepening and broadening the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the US.



    UNIVERSITY The 17th edition of the Izvoru Mureşului Summer University comes to a close today in Harghita County, central Romania. This years theme was “Romania and the Romanians abroad, one year since the Great Union Centennial. The topics approached include means to preserve the identity of Romanian communities in Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova in the context of regional geopolitical developments and the Romanian national interest, the policies of parliamentary parties and public institutions with respect to the Romanians abroad and the Romanians in multi-ethnic communities in the country. Attending the works were students from Romania and from the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and the diaspora, academics from the main universities in Romania and abroad, civil society and mass media representatives.



    VOTE Nearly 9,000 Romanians living abroad had registered to vote by mail on the www.votstrainatate.ro portal 20 days since its release. According to the Permananet Electoral Authority, this is more than the total number of registrations for mail voting for the 2016 parliamentary elections. The website www.votstrainatate.ro has been created to ensure better records on the Romanians living abroad and to help keep them better informed on the voting process ahead of this Novembers presidential election. The Ministry for the Romanians Abroad also launched an information campaign in this respect and announced that over 5.5 million Romanians have left the country. In the recent elections for the EP, tens of thousands of Romanians queued for hours in polling stations abroad, and many of them eventually failed to cast their ballots.



    PIPELINE The BRUA pipeline, designed to carry natural gas from the Caspian and the Black Sea to Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, will only be completed in December 2020, one year behind schedule, according to the financial report for the first half of this year made public by the Romanian company Transgaz. The reasons for the delay include problems in the bidding process, the need to amend the legislative framework, the discovery of archaeological sites, adverse weather conditions for extensive periods of time as well as delays in the negotiations with some of the land owners or users, the company explains. Last month, the Romanian Economy Ministry announced having finalised almost half of the pipeline, and around 80-90% of the 3 compressor stations. Stage I of the BRUA project requires total investments of nearly 500 million euro, of which the EU has offered a 179-million grant. The Government of Romania holds about 60% of the stock of Transgaz, with the remaining shares traded in the stock market.



    MILITARY The National Defence Ministry will organise at the Mihail Kogălniceanu 57 Air Base, in the south east, a ceremony to mark the dispatch of the ‘Carpathian Pumas’ unit on a mission in Mali. The Romanian troops will take part in the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali. The around 120 members of the Romanian unit, accompanied by 4 IAR-330 Puma L-RM helicopters, will be in charge of medical evacuation, transportation of troops and materials, passenger transport, air patrol and monitoring activities beginning mid-October. At present Romania has 1,033 troops involved in missions abroad.



    SONGS All Romanians are invited to vote for one month to choose the 6 songs representing Romania in the first EU Songbook. So far 65,000 people in 26 countries have voted for their favourites, says the organiser of the event, the European Union Songbook organisation, on its website. The EU Songbook is a non-profit organisation without political or financial connections with Brussels. The first edition of the Songbook will be published on Europe Day, May 9, 2020.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)