Radio România Internațional

Tag: education bills

  • May 20, 2023

    May 20, 2023

    Education. The debates on the education bills continue in the Education Committee of the Romanian Senate, which must adopt the reports that will be sent to the plenary no later than Monday. While the higher education law has already received a favorable report from the committee, the provisions aimed at pre-university education have brought tensions between the government and the opposition. The bone of contention was represented by the oppositions desire, also supported by the student and parents associations, to eliminate a possible additional exam after the National Assessment, for half of the number of places in a high school. The two education bills should receive the decisive vote in the Senate plenary on Monday. In parallel, the countdown for the strike announced for months by the education unions has begun. Theyve said, however, that they will accept possible negotiations over the weekend and proposals from the Government. The claims are mainly salary related.



    G7. The leaders of the G7 countries, gathered in Hiroshima, Japan, have called on China to put pressure on Russia to stop its aggression against Ukraine, stating at the same time that they want constructive and stable relations with Beijing, France Presse reports On Friday, on the first day of talks, the G7 leaders stated that Ukraine had the necessary budgetary support for the current year and the beginning of 2024 and renewed their commitments to provide financial and military support to Kyiv, to help it deal with the Russian aggression. In a statement, they also called for the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops and military equipment from within the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who arrived in Hiroshima this morning, participated in the summit. In another move, the European allies welcomed the US decision to allow Ukrainian pilots to train on US-made F-16 fighter jets. According to the BBC, US leader Joe Biden was reluctant, fearing that giving Ukraine fighter jets would escalate the conflict, but has now given in to pressure from allies, allowing Ukrainian pilots to train on F-16 models. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced that Britain will work with the US, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark to provide Ukraine with the air combat capabilities it needs.



    Refugees. More than 4 million refugees have entered Romania since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, last February. Most of them only transited the country to reach Western Europe, but, according to data published by the Romanian authorities, 130,000 Ukrainian refugees have benefited from protection in Romania, over 42,000 being registered in Bucharest alone.



    Moldova. On Sunday morning, at the initiative of President Maia Sandu, a large demonstration will take place in Chisinau to show the citizens support for the European integration of their country. The event takes place in the context in which the Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet, predominantly Romanian-speaking), as a candidate country, would like to start accession negotiations by the end of this year. In order to move to this stage, the Republic of Moldova has to fulfill nine recommendations, which will be evaluated by the fall in a European Commission report. The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, will also participate in the event in Chisinau.



    Elections. Elections for the unicameral parliament with 300 deputies will be held in Greece on Sunday. For the first time in the last 30 years, the ballot is exclusive, according to proportional representation, with a threshold of 3%, and opinion polls indicate six parties that will make it to parliament. In the lead is Kyriakos Mitsotakiss ruling New Democracy party, followed by Alexis Tsiprass left-wing Syriza party. If a new coalition government cannot be formed, new elections will be called for the month of June, at which, however, the granting of bonus mandates to the first party will be resumed and, in this way, it will be possible to form a new majority government or a coalition government.



    Halep. The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, former world number one, faces a new case, related to irregularities in the data of her biological passport, the tennis anti-doping authority has announced. Halep, the 2018 Roland Garros and 2019 Wimbledon champion, has been provisionally suspended since last October after testing positive for roxadustat during the US Open in August 2022. In an interview with Tennis Majors published in late April, the player cited a contamination of one of her dietary supplements to explain the positive test. The new case, confirmed on Friday by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), is based on an assessment of the profile of her biological passport by a group of independent experts. The biological passport makes it possible to monitor different blood parameters over a long period of time. In a statement broadcast on Friday evening, Simona Halep says that she is “living the worst nightmare” of her life since the announcement of the suspension, on October 7, and denounces a form of “harassment” on the part of ITIA, which she accuses of trying to prove that she is guilty of something she has never done. (MI)


  • March 29, 2023 UPDATE

    March 29, 2023 UPDATE

    Education – In Bucharest, the education draft laws were approved in the government meeting on Wednesday and are to be debated and adopted in Parliament, in an emergency procedure. The line minister, Ligia Deca, stated that the documents brought together the desiderata and vision of society as a whole with regard to education in the run up to 2030. She gave some examples of changes to the law, such as centering the educational system on the student, stimulating the potential that each child has and accompanying this potential from early education to adulthood. Another desideratum would be to increase the quality and level of functional literacy. Ligia Deca also said that the lessons learned as a result of the successive crises of the recent years were also included in the two laws.



    Protest – Two Romanian trade union federations on Wednesday staged a protest outside the government headquarters, unhappy with the salary scheme in this sector. They demand urgent solutions to enhance the incomes of the auxiliary teaching staff and overtime pay for the teaching and auxiliary staff. The federations also demand the application of the regulations on the payment of bonuses for working conditions, saying that the education employees are the only category of public employees that does not benefit from such bonuses. Similar protests were held last week around the country. Trade unions say they are planning a protest rally in Bucharest in May and even warn of a general strike unless the government finds solutions to the problems of the employees in the education sector.



    Pensions – The Senate has passed a bill on the reform of special pensions, with 79 MPs voting in favor and 37 against. After intense discussions, the bill was approved on Tuesday by the specialist committees, who only accepted the amendments proposed by the parliamentary majority. One of the changes refers to an additional tax of 15% on the special pensions exceeding the gross average salary. Also, special pensions can no longer exceed the incomes obtained before retirement, and beneficiaries cannot receive both a salary and a pension. Around 200,000 people currently benefit from special pensions, of whom 170,000 are former defense and public order employees. Romania has 7 categories of special pensions, including those of magistrates, military and diplomats. Yearly budget expenses connected to special pensions amount to some 2.4 billion Euros. Former magistrates have the highest pensions, even amounting to some 3,600 Euros a month, ten times more than the average state pension. Changing this pension system is a requirement laid down in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and failure to make the change may lose Romania almost 3 billion Euros of EU funding.




    Natural gas – EU energy ministers have decided to extend by another year the recommendation to cut natural gas use by 15%. The measure was initially proposed after the start of the war in Ukraine in an attempt to reduce dependence on Russian gas. According to the Swedish presidency of the EU, thanks to this recommendation, European gas use dropped by almost 20% from August to January. The reduction in consumption also contributed to a drop in prices, said the EU officials.



    Drill — Sea Shield 2023, the most complex NATO military training exercise planned and conducted by the Romanian Naval Forces this year, continued on the Black Sea shore. An evacuation exercise took place on Wednesday, in which the forces involved manage a situation of illegal transport of refugees by sea. Romanian and Bulgarian ships participated. About 3,400 soldiers and representatives of several institutions from the national defense system, as well as from 12 allied and partner states, are participating in Sea Shield 2023. (CM, LS)