Radio România Internațional

Tag: fine

  • National airline TAROM repatriates Blue Air customers

    National airline TAROM repatriates Blue Air customers

    It is hard to think of a less popular
    brand in Romania these days than the private air operator Blue Air. Facing
    funding shortages, the airline left thousands of passengers in airports across
    Europe.


    The government earmarked around EUR 1 mln
    from its reserve fund to cover repatriation costs for the Romanian nationals
    stranded abroad. The money will be recovered in full from the private operator,
    PM Nicolae Ciucă promised. In turn, the transport minister Sorin Grindeanu
    urged the travellers to claim compensations from the airline and to look for
    other options to return to the country, given that the national operator TAROM
    cannot possibly operate all the flights cancelled by Blue Air.


    The leader of USR party in opposition, Cătălin
    Drulă, himself a former transport minister, accuses Grindeanu of being
    aware of the situation with Blue Air, but failing to warn Romanians not to buy
    tickets. This is how thousands of people paid for nothing, Drulă said, and
    added that lies are being circulated that people will get their money back,
    but there is nothing left to take from Blue Air. Blue Air is bankrupt, nobody
    will see a refund from them.


    So far thousands of
    people have asked for help to get back to Romania, and TAROM has organised a number of special
    flights, most of them to Greece. Blue Air first decided to suspend all flights
    until 12September, because they saw their accounts frozen by the
    Environment Fund Agency, to which the company owes over EUR 5 mln. According to
    Blue Air itself, this meant cancelling 400 flights, for which over 54,000
    passengers had bought tickets. Now, the airline announces it plans to resume
    flights only on 10 October, although the authorities have unfrozen its accounts.


    The head of the National Consumer
    Protection Authority, Horia Constantinescu, said the institution is considering
    criminal proceedings against Blue Air, and explained that the company had
    already proved it did not care about passengers’ rights.


    Two months ago, the Authority fined the
    company for having cancelled a large number of flights this year, which
    affected tens of thousands of passengers.


    Blue Air is the largest Romanian airline in terms of
    the number of passengers, with an ultra-low cost business model. During 17 years
    of operation, Blue Air serviced over 32 million customers and flew over 340 million
    km, reads a news release issued by the air operator. In normal times, this
    sentence would sound like a progress report. Today, it feels more like an obituary. (AMP)

  • Romania’s Constitutional Court Rejects Increases in Fines

    Romania’s Constitutional Court Rejects Increases in Fines

    One of the measures imposed during the state of emergency in Romania was a significant increase in the value of the fines meant to discourage those who would hamper authorities efforts to eradicate the new coronavirus. Under an emergency government decree, Romanians caught red-handed were forced to pay huge amounts, as to their purchasing power. Against a medium salary of approx. 700 Euro, the minimum fine was increased to 400 Euro, and the maximum one to over 4000 Euro.



    Also, against the background of some rather vague provisions included in the military decrees issued during the state of emergency, whose interpretation was left to the discretion of the police, some people were caught offside and fined abusively; for example, elderly people without any kind of support or less informed or educated people from the rural areas.



    In this context, on Wednesday, the Constitutional Court of Romania admitted the claim filed by the Ombudsman against the emergency government decree that established those huge sanctions for non-compliance with the rules of quarantine and isolation. In other words, the very large fines were declared unconstitutional.



    The CCR judges argue that the provisions of the decree are lacking in clarity, precision and predictability, and the establishment of the facts constituting a contravention is left, arbitrarily, to the discretion of police officers.



    The Liberal Prime Minister Ludovic Orban has reacted, saying the ruling of the Constitutional Court is a political one:


    “We could say that this ruling actually prevents the Government, the authorities, from protecting the health and lives of the Romanians. This decision can lead to a situation in which authorities can no longer impose any fines for violating the rules that are established during the state of emergency.”



    In turn, the Finance Minister Florin Citu has defended himself, stating that the role of the large fines was not to bring money to the budget, but to reduce the risk of further spread.



    On the other side of the political barricade, the opposition represented by the Social Democratic Party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats and Pro Romania, have drafted a bill to automatically cancel most of the fines given during the state of emergency, so the activity of the courts is not blocked with hundreds of thousands of lawsuits.



    The Foundation for the Protection of Citizens against State Abuse has informed all Romanians who consider that they have been abusively fined that, at least for now, they can challenge the fines in court until May 30th. More than 300 thousand fines have been given over this period of time. (M.Ignatescu)

  • Football Flash

    Football Flash

    The Romanian Football Federation has been fined by the discipline committee of the International Federation with 25,000 Swiss francs, while a fixture that was supposed to take place on the National Arena in Bucharest has been suspended. The reason for this fine was the fans rowdy behaviour in the home match against Armenia and the one with Montenegro in Podgorica, both held last month in the World Cup qualifiers in 2018.



    Injured footballer Bogdan Stancu has been replaced in the national team with George Tucudean, former striker at Viitorul. According to the Romanian Football Federation, Stancu, who has suffered a strong concussion in the right hip, has been declared unavailable for the games against Kazakhstan and Denmark, due on Thursday and Sunday in the qualifiers for the World Cup 2018 in Russia.



    Young Romanian goalie Ionut Rus has been included on the list of the worlds best young football talents, made by the British daily ‘The Guardian.



    Born on 20th January 2000, Ionut is currently playing for Romanias under-21 football side. According to the same source, Ionut has been training for a couple of months with Italian side Lazio. The young Romanian talent has confirmed he received offers from football sides from England, Italy and the Netherlands, but has chosen Lazio because he likes the project this club is presently running.



    The best-known player on the Guardians list is Flamengos Brazilian striker Vinicius Jr, who has already signed up with Real Madrid. The list also includes striker Timothy Weah, who is playing for Paris Saint-Germain like his father George Weah, the first African footballer to win the Golden Ball (Ballon dOr). Another talented player mentioned by the Guardian is Jadon Sancho, one of the young hopes of the English football, who has recently signed up with German side Borussia Dortmund.


    (translated by: Daniel Bilt)

  • Football Flash

    Football Flash

    The Romanian Football Federation has been fined by the discipline committee of the International Federation with 25,000 Swiss francs, while a fixture that was supposed to take place on the National Arena in Bucharest has been suspended. The reason for this fine was the fans rowdy behaviour in the home match against Armenia and the one with Montenegro in Podgorica, both held last month in the World Cup qualifiers in 2018.



    Injured footballer Bogdan Stancu has been replaced in the national team with George Tucudean, former striker at Viitorul. According to the Romanian Football Federation, Stancu, who has suffered a strong concussion in the right hip, has been declared unavailable for the games against Kazakhstan and Denmark, due on Thursday and Sunday in the qualifiers for the World Cup 2018 in Russia.



    Young Romanian goalie Ionut Rus has been included on the list of the worlds best young football talents, made by the British daily ‘The Guardian.



    Born on 20th January 2000, Ionut is currently playing for Romanias under-21 football side. According to the same source, Ionut has been training for a couple of months with Italian side Lazio. The young Romanian talent has confirmed he received offers from football sides from England, Italy and the Netherlands, but has chosen Lazio because he likes the project this club is presently running.



    The best-known player on the Guardians list is Flamengos Brazilian striker Vinicius Jr, who has already signed up with Real Madrid. The list also includes striker Timothy Weah, who is playing for Paris Saint-Germain like his father George Weah, the first African footballer to win the Golden Ball (Ballon dOr). Another talented player mentioned by the Guardian is Jadon Sancho, one of the young hopes of the English football, who has recently signed up with German side Borussia Dortmund.


    (translated by: Daniel Bilt)