Radio România Internațional

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  • February 4-9, 2018

    February 4-9, 2018

    New salary scheme sparks controversy in Romania



    The unified pay law and the switch in the payment of social contributions from employer to employee have caused dissatisfaction among public employees. Trade unions say peoples salaries have dropped significantly in some sectors as a result. In response, labour minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu says the purpose of the law, which passed last year, is to even things out in the public sector, where state employees used to be paid differently for doing the same job or holding the same position. Vasilescu also says the law observes a basic European principle, namely equal pay for equal work, and that bonuses have been capped because they were sometimes higher than the basic salary. On Thursday, the Romanian government took a series of measures to maintain the monthly net income at least at the same level as that recorded in December last year for IT, research and development and innovation employees, seasonal workers, employees with serious disabilities and part-time employees. The National Liberal Party, the main opposition party in Romania, plans to call for a no-confidence vote against the labour minister over the new salary law. The Liberals have also criticised the switch in the payment of social contributions from employers to employees, saying it has unsettled the salary system even more. The president of the Association of Romanian Business People, Florin Pogonaru, says all economic measures taken last year were devoid of logic. He believes 2018 will be the year when the populist measures taken by the government last year will come back to haunt it. He says the first signs of this happening is the confusion over the new salary scheme.




    Romanias growth rate to slow, the European Commission estimates

    The European Commission estimates that Romanias economic growth rate will slow down to 4.5% this year and to 4% next year, following an accelerated rise to 6.7% in 2017, according to the Commissions winter forecast published on Wednesday. The World Bank has recently made similar estimates regarding Romania. The National Prognosis Commission, however, this week revised its GDP forecast for this year up to 6.1%. In its report, the European Commission also notes that the situation of the labour market has improved, the unemployment rate is at a 20-year low and the net average salary has gone up by 13% in real terms. The Commission has warned, however, that the inflation rate began to increase in the second half of last year as a result of food and energy price rises. Also on Wednesday, Romanias National Bank increased the annual monetary policy interest rate from 2% to 2.25%, but maintained the current levels of minimum reserve rates for liabilities in the local currency and hard currency in the case of lending institutions. National Bank governor Mugur Isarescu expects loans in the local currency to become more expensive as a result.



    The Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and
    Terrorism publishes yearly report

    In its activity report for last year, the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism says Islamic radicalisation has grown in recent years in Romania and calls for the terrorism law to be updated. Counter-terrorism prosecutors say, however, that Romania did not face any concrete or substantial threat last year. The report also notes that more than 2,000 kg of drugs were seized last year. Cannabis is the most trafficked drug in Romania, being brought in by road in particular from Spain and the Netherlands. Romania is still mainly a transit country in the illegal cross-border trade, being on the so-called Balkan route used chiefly for smuggling heroin, cocaine and ecstasy.



    European Parliament
    debates threats to the rule of law by the Romanian justice system reform


    The Romanian justice system is in the spotlight of the European Union following changes to the justice laws initiated by the ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. The changes have come under criticism from the right-wing opposition, civil society and magistrates, who say they aim to place the judiciary under political control. On Wednesday, the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg held a debate on the threats to the rule of law by the Romanian justice system reform. The European Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova reiterated the call of the European Commission for Parliament in Bucharest to start a debate on the changes to the justice laws in line with Brussels recommendations and reach consensus on the subject. Vera Jourova said the independence of Romanias justice system and its ability to fight against corruption efficiently have been the Commissions wish and Romanias goal for years. The Social Democratic MEP Victor Bostinaru, however, echoed the views of the ruling majority in Bucharest that the European Commission doesnt know all the facts about the situation in Romania.

  • The Week in Review, August 7-13

    The Week in Review, August 7-13

    The Funeral of Queen Anne of Romania


    Romanians paid their respects this week to Queen Anne of Romania, who was buried on Saturday in Curtea de Arges, the first capital city of the medieval principality of Wallachia. Consort to Romanias last king, Michael I, Anne died on August 1, at the age of 92, in Switzerland. Her body was brought in the country on Tuesday night, first to Peles Castle in Sinaia and later to the Throne Hall of the Royal Palace in Bucharest. Severely ill himself, King Michael I was denied doctors permission to attend the funeral. Aged 94, the King visited his wife every day at the Swiss clinic where she was hospitalized before she died on August 1. Born in Paris in 1923, Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma met King Michael I in London, in 1947. Later the same year, on December 30, at a time when Romania was under Soviet occupation and run by a communist puppet government, the Sovereign was forced into exile. From the USA, Britain and Switzerland, he endorsed the activity of the Romanian National Committee, presented as a government in exile, although Western democracies never recognised it as such. King Michael was only permitted to return to Romania after the anti-communist Revolution of 1989, when he also regained his Romanian citizenship, withdrawn by communists, and part of his holdings. As a special ambassador, he lobbied for Romanias NATO accession in 2004 and EU accession in 2007.




    Public budget adjustment in Bucharest

    The Government of Romania Wednesday passed the first adjustment of the countrys public budgets this year. Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said that the adjustment was primarily designed to ensure funding for public policies, even though 2016 is an election year. The main beneficiaries of the adjustment are the ministries of healthcare, education and labour. Public healthcare received an additional 125 million euros, to cover the increased salaries of medical personnel. Additional money will also be channelled into healthcare programmes or into subsidizing medication. Another priority in the field is to fight hospital-acquired infections. In public education, the extra 220 million euros will cover the increased or adjusted salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff in under-graduate and graduate education, as well as a number of programmes addressing students. The Labour Ministry received an extra 620 million euros for the payment of social security benefits.




    Agreement in public healthcare

    In Bucharest, representatives of doctors, the Healthcare Minister Vlad Voiculescu and the Labour Minister Dragos Paslaru signed a joint statement that describes the decision to raise salaries and extra-hour bonuses starting on October 1 as a major step in bringing wages in the sector to normal levels. The Healthcare Minister says the measure is intended to correct the salary scheme in the sector, to make working hours more flexible and the healthcare system as a whole more efficient. The fair remuneration of extra-hours will require nearly 22 million euros from the budget, and will be accompanied by a set of measures aimed at eliminating inefficient spending, including, among other things, in public procurement. The new decisions come several days after healthcare staff salaries were raised, on August 1. Rises ranging between 70 and 200 euros were given to 163,000 employees.




    Former central bank vice-governor, under pre-trial arrest

    A former deputy governor of the National Bank of Romania, Bogdan Olteanu, was arrested on Friday for 16 days, under a Supreme Court order. He had been previously placed under house arrest, in an investigation in which he is accused of influence peddling. According to the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, between July and November 2008, when he was the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, appointed by the National Liberal Party, he requested and received from a businessman 1 million euros and election campaign support, in exchange for the appointment of a specific person as Danube Delta Governor. Bodgan Olteanu is the first National Bank official ever detained by prosecutors. The central bank explained that the investigation targeted the period before Bogdan Olteanu became a deputy governor, in 2009.




    Inflation report issued in Romania

    The National Bank of Romania forecasts an inflation rate of negative 0.4% for the end of this year, one per cent below the 0.6% estimate made in May, according to the Quarterly Inflation Report presented this week by the central bank governor Mugur Isarescu. For the end of next year, the National Bank forecasts a 2% inflation rate, also lower than the 2.7% figure included in the May report. For 2018, the central bank Governor expects the inflation rate to be above the 2.5% target.