Radio România Internațional

Tag: human rights

  • Romania’s new faces

    Romania’s new faces

    Romania has been facing a workforce deficit for quite some time now, created by a negative birthrate, a dramatic ageing of the population and a massive inflow of migrants. That is why, in recent years, finding a solution to the problem represented a priority for the Romanian Government, given the workforce shortage in certain fields. That explains why Romanian streets, from the regional capitals to the small country towns, today look different than they looked a couple of years ago. In the confectioner’s shop windows, riding the food delivery bicycles, in the restaurant kitchens and in all sorts of factories, as we speak, people from afar have a job. All their hopes are pinned on Romania.

     

    That is why in each of the last three years, 2022, 2023 and 2024, a contingent of 100,000 work permits was approved of, for workers from non-European countries.

     

    Other data pointed to the fact that the number of work permits Romania issued to Sri Lankan citizens in 2022 accounted for more than 50% of the total number of such permits issued to Sri Lanka in the entire European Union. According to data provided by the General Inspectorate for Immigration, in 2023, 101, 253 work permits were issued for citizens from outside the European Union. Most of such workers were from Nepal, over 23,000, Sri Lanka 22,000, Bangladesh 18, 000, and Pakistan, over 8,250. The same data point to a significant gender gap: in 2023, almost 90% of the newcomers are men. Of the main fields these workers are employed in are tourism and the hospitality industry, factories, equipment, construction, cleaning.

     

    Notwithstanding, we find it hard to tackle the topic of the foreign works ignoring the issue of their right to fair and safe working conditions, capable of protecting them from the employers’ prospective abuses.

     

    Quite a few of the press articles and investigations that have been recently published highlight how the vulnerability circumstances of these people, in a country whose language and legislation they do not know, expose them to exploitation, fraudulency and illegality circumstances. Many times, that happens for reasons they are not responsible for. Oftentimes, the foreign citizens pay rip-off sums to the go-between employment agencies, which, for them, translates into loans ranging from 4,000 to 10,000 Euros. They plan to return the sums in installments provided by the wages they get in Romania. When asked how it was possible for them to make the loans, foreigner answered they pawned family jewels, sold their plots of land, went to the bank or guaranteed with the legal documents of the houses and plots of land where their families lived.

     

    Such circumstances have placed them in a dependence relationship with the Romanian employers, who can infringe upon their fundamental rights. Anatolie Cosciug is a researcher and deputy director of the Comparative Studies Migration Center. Here he is, speaking about the abuse cases as they have been highlighted in the surveys:

     

    Anatolie Cosciug:  “We tried to find out whether those cases of abuse we’ve heard of – including from other researches, other reports – are exceptions or isolated cases or it’s actually a system thing; and if it’s a system thing, why is this happening? Here there are factors of migration or social policies in general, so not only about migration, but as we are organized as society. This is rendering immigrants and people who came to work here, very vulnerable. And I proposed to have an approach centered on human rights. This is surreal somehow as nobody speaks about them as people with rights, who are vulnerable and need protection to some extent. This seemed absolutely exceptional – in the interviews with them, the NGOs and other stakeholders – no one has this human rights approach.”

     

    Asked about the main abuse cases he discovered, Anatolie Coşciug answers:

     

    Anatolie Cosciug: “We tried to tackle all the human rights, the main forms of human rights and see what the situation is for each of them and identify specific cases for each of these rights. So, we took for instance, the right to a decent job, to a decent dwelling place, family rights, education. And surprisingly or not, we found out situations in which some of these rights were being violated, particularly in the case of dwelling. There were difficult situations in this respect, you know. Most of them said they were living in overcrowded areas and there were extreme cases in which people didn’t have access to water, the right type of food for the efforts they are making. There are also cases in which these human rights infringements aren’t that visible, you know. Such as those regarding family reunification, which involves very complicated procedures and is not encouraged by the employer, their governments or the Romanian government.”   

     

    Many believe that improvements are not going to appear very quickly; that all the sides involved, from institutions to the private environment, including the collective outlook,  – we all have a long road to walk in order to learn how to have a healthy approach towards the new-comers.

    (EN&bill)

  • 2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Romania, released

    2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Romania, released

    The US Department of State has published its Report on Human Rights Practices in Romania in 2023. Among the problems identified were, among others, credible reports of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by or on behalf of the government and serious government corruption. The government took steps to identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses, but in some cases actions were insufficient and impunity was a problem.

     

    On the other hand, inefficiency and lack of accountability in judicial oversight sometimes undermined the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. The document refers to a judge with the Cluj Court of Appeal (in the north-west), who, in November 2023, denounced the relatives of the mayor of Baia Mare, Cătălin Cherecheș, for attempting to bribe her with 50,000 euros in exchange for acquitting Mayor Chereches of corruption charges. Despite being the one to denounce Cherecheș, she remained part of the panel of judges who ultimately convicted the mayor for corruption, after claiming she would be able to remain impartial.

     

    The report also mentions the case of journalist Emilia Șercan who signaled she was the target of threats and blackmail after, in 2022, she had published an investigation regarding the alleged plagiarism committed by Nicolae Ciucă, Prime Minister of Romania at the time of publication. Șercan stated that she was the victim of a well-documented “campaign of defamation orchestrated by the government”, but in October, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Bucharest Court of Appeal closed the investigation.

     

    Another problem pointed out by Washington refers to frequent bribery in the public sector, especially in the healthcare system. Corruption and misuse of public funds was widespread, the report says, citing information from Transparency International, which noted high levels of corruption at the customs and within police units. At the same time, the media reported that, in 2023, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) investigated more than 50 cases related to corruption in the healthcare system.

     

    There are also labor law issues, according to the document. In recent years, companies have often created separate legal entities to transfer employees, thus avoiding representation thresholds. It is basically an anti-union movement. Last but not least, the authors of the report also signal cases where the authorities did not effectively apply the law on domestic violence. Among the causes mentioned would be the lack of procedures for the effective application of restraining orders. In addition, the courts have handled very few cases of domestic violence.

     

    The document also refers to an example related to ethnic discrimination, the one at the hospital in Urziceni (south), where employees refused to provide emergency medical assistance to a pregnant Roma woman, who gave birth on the sidewalk. (EE)

     

     

  • The War in Ukraine and Human Rights Observance

    The War in Ukraine and Human Rights Observance

    Bucharest reconfirms Romania’s firm and unflinching
    support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the
    neighboring Ukraine, invaded by Russian troops – Romanian Foreign Minister
    Bogdan Aurescu has said before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
    Romania’s determination to make a solid contribution to peace, development and
    human rights observance is stronger than ever. Human rights are universal,
    inalienable, indivisible and interconnected so that there is no human dignity
    without human rights, Minister Aurescu went on to say. The head of the
    Romanian diplomacy has recalled the recent resolution by the UN General Assembly,
    which condemns the war Russia is presently waging on Ukraine. He underlined
    that we must make tireless efforts to hold the Russian Federation accountable
    for its war crimes in Ukraine and to offer compensations to the large number of
    victims.

    According to its Foreign Minister, Romania values the efforts of the
    UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to document the cases of sexual violence
    against women during the armed conflict in that country as well as other cases
    of blatant violations of human and POW rights. Ukraine’s victory must be
    defined by Ukraine itself – Aurescu says, because it is its legal and moral
    right. We, on our part, must provide multilateral support to strengthen
    Ukraine’s resilience against the Russian aggression. We must have a consistent
    international dialogue and coordination for the post-war reconstruction of
    Ukraine based on an ample plan in keeping with the realities on the ground -
    Aurescu added.


    As early as April 2022, the
    famous human rights organization, Human Rights Watch (HWR), announced that it had
    documented numerous cases in which Russian troops violated the rights of the
    civilians in the occupied areas in Ukraine.


    And the situation
    worsened in the months that followed. Brief executions, rapes, forced
    deportations and situations in which children were taken away from their
    families have increased at a geometric rate.


    Last month the respected
    organization also cautioned Ukraine against the apparent use of antipersonnel
    landmines by its forces in the fights for the city of Izium. According to Steve
    Goose, director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch, Ukrainian forces
    appear to have extensively scattered landmines around the Izium area, causing
    civilian casualties and posing an ongoing risk.


    Russian forces have
    repeatedly used antipersonnel mines and committed atrocities across the
    country, but this doesn’t justify Ukrainian use of these prohibited weapons,
    the HRW official has also said.


    (bill)

  • The Human Rights Report of the US Department of State

    The Human Rights Report of the US Department of State

    At the end of last week, the US Department of State published its annual human rights report based on the information gleaned from the US embassies and consulates, from government officials and other sources. What does this document say about Romania?



    According to it, in 2017 as well, Romania still had overcrowded prisons with detention conditions below international standards even if the authorities had taken measures to improve the situation. The mistreatment and abuses against some detainees committed by the authorities or by other detainees remained a pending issue. According to the US Department of State most of the police abuses committed last year against disabled persons, sexual minorities, drug addicts and the homeless remained unsanctioned.



    Also cases of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and Rroma discrimination have been reported. However, no criminal cases sparked off by racial issues have been reported. The European Court of Human Rights intervened in some files after the legal system had failed to obtain the right results.



    Children from Romania were often neglected and fell victim to various abuses including work exploitation. The aforementioned human rights report describes corruption as a widespread phenomenon, while bribery is a common practice in Romanias public sector, particularly in the medical field.



    Although the present legislation sanctions corruption cases involving high-ranking officials, and in spite of numerous criminal trials, many corruption cases involving government officials were reported last year. So, the number of corruption cases involving high officials has remained unchanged, and so has the pace at which the countrys main anti-corruption Agency (DNA) investigated and prosecuted corrupt politicians or high-ranking officials in the administration and countrys judicial system.



    The same report has also mentioned the case of some politicians who control media institutions influencing their editorial activity. Independent organisations, such as the Press Monitoring Agency, Freedom House and the Centre for Independent Journalism have blown the whistle over the excessive politicization of the press, the corrupt mechanisms of funding and the editorial policies subordinated to the owners interests.

  • April 22, UPDATE

    April 22, UPDATE

    FINANCES – Romania will keep its deficit below 3%, as undertaken before international financial institutions, and the measures taken in 2018 will secure sustainable economic growth both for this year and in the future, the Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici said at a meeting with Poul Thomsen, director of IMFs European Department. According to a news release issued on Sunday by the Ministry for Public Finances, on April 20-21 Eugen Teodorovici took part in the spring meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Washington. The Romanian official also had a meeting with Cyrill Muller, World Bank vice-president for Europe and Central Asia. The Finance Minister proposed to the WB leaders a new approach on loan granting, which would make spending more flexible, depending on the stage of preparation and implementation of projects. According to the Ministry, the agenda of the Romanian delegation also included meetings with representatives of investment banks, rating agencies and officials of international financial institutions.



    CONFERENCE – The Speaker of the Senate of Romania, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, and of the Chamber of Deputies, Liviu Dragnea, will take part on Monday and Tuesday in the Conference of Speakers of EU Parliaments, held in Tallinn, Estonia. Taking part will be over 40 speakers of national parliaments, as well as the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani. The main topics on the agenda are the future of the European Union and the EU security and defence.



    HUMAN RIGHTS – Corruption remains widespread in Romania, and bribe-giving is still common practice in the public sector, reads the 2017 Country Report on Human rights issued by the US State Department. Laws were not always implemented efficiently, and officials, judges included, sometimes engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Immunity from criminal prosecution held by existing and former cabinet members who were also members of parliament sometimes blocked investigations, the report also reads. The same document notes that some Romanian politicians own or control media organisations, influencing their editorial policy. As regards prisons, the report mentions that they remained overcrowded and in breach of international standards, although the authorities took some steps to address the situation. In Romania, the US State Department says, some cases of police abuse were reported in 2017 as well, most of them going unpunished. So were cases of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and discrimination against the Roma, people with disabilities and sexual minorities. Child abuse and neglect cases were also reported.



    ANTI-CORRUPTION – The Government of Romania intends to notify the Constitutional Court with respect to President Klaus Iohannis decision not to dismiss the chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi. A meeting in this respect will be held on Monday by PM Viorica Dancila and the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, the one who requested the dismissal. According to him, the President gave no judicial or managerial arguments to substantiate his decision, which was exclusively political in nature. The head of state said the dismissal request was ungrounded, which was also the official opinion of the Superior Council of Magistracy.



    TENNIS – Romanias womens tennis team defeated Switzerland in the playoffs for the Fed Cup World Group, hosted by the north-western Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca, general score 3-1. In the last match of the competition, the Swiss pair Viktorija Golubic/Jil Teichmann defeated Sorana Cîrstea and Mihaela Buzărnescu. In the first match of the day, world no 1 Simona Halep outplayed the Swiss Patty Schnyder and won the decisive point for Romanias qualification. The previous day, Halep won against Viktorija Golubic, while Irina-Camelia Begu defeated Timea Bacsinszky. Demoted in 2016 from Fed Cups World Group, Romania thus returns to the world tennis elite in the 2019 season.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • April 22, 2018

    April 22, 2018

    EARTH DAY – Earth Day is celebrated today in Romania as well, with cleaning projects, flower planting and hikes organised by schools, NGOs, associations and political parties. Climate changes are a clear proof that the Earth is suffering and each and every one of us can end this suffering, provided that we all work together, reads a Facebook post of the Romanian Ministry for the Environment. In 2018, events focus on containing plastic pollution. The Earth Day network, which has offices in over 175 countries, intends to raise awareness on the risks entailed by the use of plastics for peoples health as well as for the oceans and wildlife. Hundreds of millions of tons of plastics are sold around the world every year.




    PROTESTS – A new large-scale rally of railway workers is scheduled for Monday, April 22, at noon, in Bucharest. On Friday more than 2,000 unionists picketed the Transport Ministry and the Government head offices. Dumitru Costin, leader of the National Union Bloc, believes all-out strike to be the only solution. Railway sector unions want a special law to regulate professions in the sector, including salary rights, and demand solutions for the Freight Transport Corporation and investments in the maintenance and development of the railway network. Romanias railway network, the 7th longest in Europe, is subject to over 700 speed restrictions, and the 1,200 trains of the public railway corporation only total 300 cars. Transport Minister Lucian Şova said in a news release that he supported the adoption of relevant regulations and that increasing investments in the sector was a priority.




    HUMAN RIGHTS – Corruption remains widespread in Romania, and bribe-giving is still common practice in the public sector, reads the 2017 Country Report on Human rights issued by the US State Department. Laws were not always implemented efficiently, and officials, judges included, sometimes engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Immunity from criminal prosecution held by existing and former cabinet members who were also members of parliament sometimes blocked investigations, the report also reads. The same document notes that some Romanian politicians own or control media organisations, influencing their editorial policy. As regards prisons, the report mentions that they remained overcrowded and in breach of international standards, although the authorities took some steps to address the situation. In Romania, the US State Department says, some cases of police abuse were reported in 2017 as well, most of them going unpunished. So were cases of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and discrimination against the Roma, people with disabilities and sexual minorities. Child abuse and neglect cases were also reported.




    HUNGARY – Tens of thousands of protesters marched the streets of Hungarian capital city Budapest to protest governmental control over the media. This was the second consecutive Saturday of protests against PM Viktor Orban, recently re-elected to office. According to the BBC, the protesters accuse the Government of high-jacking the public and private mass media and using them in order to win the recent elections through anti-immigrant messages. The participants in the rally also criticised opposition parties and called for a new opposition movement. The PM Viktor Orban has dismissed the protests as “irrelevant, BBC reports.




    TENNIS – Simona Halep, no 1 in the world, secured Romanias qualification in the Fed Cup World Group, with a decisive win in the playoffs. Halep defeated today in Cluj (north-west), the veteran Patty Schnyder, 39, who replaced Timea Bacsinzky, on the second day of the Fed Cup World Group playoffs. The fourth singles match, between Irina Begu and Viktorija Golubic, was therefore cancelled. In the doubles event, Simona Halep and Irina Begu face Patty Schnyder/Jil Teichman. So far, Romania is ahead, 3-0, Halep having defeated Viktorija Golubic on Saturday 2-1, while Begu outplayed Bacsinzky 2-0.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Promised solutions for penitentiary staff demands

    Promised solutions for penitentiary staff demands

    The authorities are aware that the Romanian prison system is riddled with complex problems. Both the employees in the system and the inmates are deeply dissatisfied, to such an extent that on August 1st, prison staff went on a work-to-rule strike. Prison guards demand improved working conditions, solutions to the personnel shortage problem, the reorganisation of detention facilities and the building of new prisons.



    After talks on Thursday with the unionists in the penitentiary system, Prime Minister Mihai Tudose announced the Cabinets willingness to take measures to improve the activity of the National Penitentiary Agency. The Government is considering, among other things, an increase in salaries as well as a review of the personnel requirements, in line with the current relevant standards. After the meeting, the head of the National Union of Penitentiary Workers, Stefan Teoroc, said that PM Mihai Tudose had also agreed to a change in the status of penitentiary workers:



    Ştefan Teoroc: “As far as our status is concerned, the Prime Minister was firmly in favour of changing the name into ‘Penitentiary Police, while as far as the number of jobs goes our position is that the same government resolution should increase the number of jobs in the penitentiary system from the current 15,000 to 20,000. We will analyse this together with the Justice Ministry, and even if this increase is to be made gradually, it should begin this year. The first step would be to add a number of jobs and to fill as many vacancies as possible.



    Teoroc also said he had asked the Prime Minister not to proceed with a planned 12,500,000 euro cut in the budget of the penitentiary system, and instead to use this amount for further hiring and for improving working conditions in prisons. He also warns that the unionists will not give up their protests until at least some of the promises made during Thursdays meeting have been met.



    On the other hand, the European Court for Human Rights calls on Romania to improve detention conditions. Prison overcrowding, inadequate sanitation facilities, lack of hygiene, and low food quality are some of the elements pointing to the severe failure of the prison system. In February, the director general of the National Penitentiary Agency, Marius Vulpe, announced that the fines imposed on Romania by the European Court for Human Rights over poor detention conditions totalled 1.6 million euro last year alone.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • August 8, 2017

    August 8, 2017

    PARLIAMENT – In Romania, the Senate and Chamber of Deputies convene, as of today, in a special parliamentary session. The agenda includes the emergency ordinances that the Government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania passed last week, and which need to be endorsed by Parliament before they can take effect. These legislative acts concern the capping of special pensions in the defence, public order and judicial sectors, as well as of child allowances, and the raise of police staff salaries. The Liberals, in opposition, argue that the legal requirements for the Chamber of Deputies to convene have not been met, and threaten to notify the Constitutional Court in this respect.




    UNIONS – The Romanian Justice Minister, Tudorel Toader, had a meeting today with representatives of penitentiary trade unions. He said he would personally coordinate the National Penitentiary Agency and would have weekly meetings with the representatives of prison personnel to find solutions to their demands. Trade union leader Sorin Dumitraşcu said the Justice Minister promised to have a meeting this week with the Prime Minister, in order to discuss the granting of up to 15% bonuses to penitentiary personnel, who have not been included in the categories of public sector staff benefiting from pay raises. Unionists also demand the improvement of work standards, solutions to the issue of personnel shortage, the reorganisation of prisons and the building of new ones. Penitentiary employees intend to stage street protests next week, over inadequate work conditions. They have been on a work-to-rule strike since August 1. We remind you that the improvement of detention conditions in Romania is a requirement issued by the European Court for Human Rights.




    INFLATION – The National Bank of Romania adjusted the inflation forecast for end-2017 from 1.6% up to 1.9%, the central bank governor Mugur Isarescu announced on Tuesday, when he presented the Inflation Report. For next year as well, the National Bank raised its inflation forecast to 3.2%, up from the previously estimated rate of 3.1%. Isarescu explained that these changes were triggered by the fiscal policy, by the increase in foodstuff prices as well as by the political tensions in June, which temporarily affected the exchange rate for the national currency.




    DEFENCE – The Romanian Defence Minister, Adrian Ţuţuianu, and Gen. Nicolae Ciucă, General Chief of Staff, had talks in Bucharest with the head of the Alabama National Guard, Major Gen. Sheryl Gordon, who is on a visit to Romania. The talks approached the regional security environment, particularly at the Black Sea, the strategic partnership between the US and Romania, and the planned equipment purchases for the Romanian Army. Ţuţuianu has recently announced that the Plan for military equipment procurement has been approved, and reiterated that Romania was committed to earmarking 2% of the GDP to the defence sector, as it has undertaken in its capacity as a NATO member state. During his visit to Romania, the recently appointed chief of the ANG, Major Gen. Sheryl Gordon, will take part in an exercise of Romanian mountain troops and will visit the “Getica Joint Training Centre in Cincu, Brasov County.



    WEATHER – The weather is hot in the south-west and south of Romania, while in the hilly and mountain areas in the south and the centre rainfalls, thunderstorms and strong wind are reported. The highs of the day range between 24 and 36 degrees Celsius, with a 26-degree reading in Bucharest at noon. Weather experts warn that as of Wednesday a new heat wave will reach Romania, with temperatures going up to 38-39 degrees Celsius. Moreover, for the next 2 weeks meteorologists expect the weather to alternate between highs of 34 degrees Celsius and rainfalls in most regions, especially in the mountains.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • August 19, 2016 UPDATE

    August 19, 2016 UPDATE


    EUROBAROMETER Romanians’ confidence in justice and the legal system in general has dropped by 13 % as
    compared to 2015, the Eurobarometer issued by the European Commission shows. 60% of the respondents say they do not really trust the judiciary in Romania, which is a 12% increase as compared to
    2015. 72% of the respondents say they have confidence in the Army, 4% less than
    in 2015. Some 50% of the respondents trust the police, 1% more than in the fall of 2015. Higher percentages are also registered in the case of political parties, amounting to 13%, one percent more than in the fall of 2015. The poll was conducted between May 21 and
    31, 2016.






    ROAD CARRIERS Romanian
    road freight carriers have decided to go on a token strike and run every day at
    a speed of 30 km/hour anywhere in Romania, until the car insurance premiums are
    reduced to 4,907 lei per year, that is 1,100 Euro, reads a communiqué
    issued by the National Union of Road Carriers in Romania and made public by the
    AGREPRES news agency on Friday. Apart from the token strike, the Union,
    together with the other employers’ associations in the field of road
    transportation will organise a big protest movement, at national level, on
    September 15, 2016. Most commercial carriers are on the brink of bankruptcy
    after insurance premiums for commercial freight and passenger transportation
    have increased by over 300% as compared to the previous year and by over 500%
    as compared to 2014. The union also believes that insurance companies are not
    interested in reducing risks, but in concealing their inefficiency and placing
    the burden on carriers.






    DROUGHT Prolonged
    drought in Romania has affected over 350,000 ha of farm land, but it is only at
    the end of the year that the relevant authorities can made public the exact
    surface of the affected area, as they are still receiving notifications from
    the field, agriculture minister Achim Irimescu has said. He has added that the
    ministry he runs has taken into consideration an assistance plan to compensate
    the debts accumulated by farmers who no longer afford to pay electricity and
    water bills. In another move, farmers protested again on Thursday in front of
    the Government headquarters, unhappy with the delayed payment of subsidies in
    agriculture. Some of them went on hunger strike and said they would continue
    this extreme form of protest until the government made all the payments. They
    have rejected any invitation to negotiations extended by the agriculture minister,
    whom they blame for failing to comply with the commitments he has made.






    BORDER SECURITY The
    Romanian Interior Ministry has increased the number of border police and gendarmes deployed along the border with Serbia, after two illegal border
    crossing attempts by small groups of migrants have been registered this week, a
    communiqué issued by the Romanian Interior Ministry reads. Furthermore, the
    troops already deployed are now accompanied by thermo-vision cars, canine
    border patrols and additional ground troops. These ground missions will be
    backed by a helicopter. These actions are aimed at maintaining public order and
    fighting cross-border crime on Romania’s south-western border.






    HUMAN RIGHTS The Romanian
    Foreign Ministry firmly condemns the attacks and threats against humanitarian
    aid workers and calls for the unconditional observance of international human
    rights, including with regard to ensuring civilians’ protection. The
    announcement was made on Friday, which was World Humanitarian Day. The Romanian
    Foreign Ministry honours all those who take risks and make personal sacrifices
    to reduce suffering and help the victims of conflicts, violence and natural
    disasters. According to a communiqué issued by the Ministry, last year 109
    humanitarian aid workers died in crisis areas and, this year in June, the tall
    stood at 24 people. According to the UN, there are some 130 million people
    currently affected by conflicts and disasters, in more than 40 countries across
    the world.






    INTELLIGENCE More than
    8,000 Romanians were the object of police exchanges of information at
    international level, in the first half of the year. According to a communiqué
    issued by the Romanian General Police Inspectorate, as a result of the exchange of messages through INTERPOL, 623 people were arrested
    and 46 were located abroad to be subsequently extradited. The International
    Police Cooperation Centre of the Romanian Police processed over 200,000
    operative messages in the first half of the year, with the aim of combating crime at global level. 32 operations concerning serious crimes were run through Europol, in partnership with law
    enforcement agencies in Romania.






    SUMMER UNIVERSITY The 14th
    Summer University in Izvorul Muresului ended with the participants adopting a
    resolution, which will be submitted to the Presidential Administration,
    Parliament, Government and political parties in Romania. Representatives of the
    historical communities around the borders and the Diaspora formulated requests
    regarding Romanian citizenship and the setting up of cultural institutes. Also, they
    stressed in the resolution the fact that Romanians in the historical
    communities around Romania’s borders in the Balkans are subject to an
    aggressive assimilation process, without them benefiting from the European
    rights for national minorities. The participants ask for the setting up of a
    Ministry of Romanians Around the World, the passing of the law on the status,
    role and functions of Romanian language as official language, and the Romanian
    political parties on both sides of the River Prut making a re-union pact with a view to completely
    integrating the Republic of Moldova into Romania by 2018.

  • January 13, 2016 UPDATE

    January 13, 2016 UPDATE

    ECONOMY– World Bank representatives are optimistic about Romanias economic performance but they warn however that some potential risks must not be neglected. A delegation of the World Bank, led by the Regional Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia, Cyril Muller, was received in Bucharest on Wednesday by Romanias President Klaus Iohannis. During the talks, the economic experts reiterated the WBs interest in further supporting economic and institutional reforms meant to boost Romanias development in the long run. These reforms are mainly destined for the sector of state enterprises and are also aimed at improving corporatist governance as well as at developing and modernising key sectors, such as transports. The meeting was held just days after the technocratic cabinet in Bucharest and the World Bank signed a new memorandum under which the World Bank grants technical assistance to Romanian public institutions until 2023. Thanks to a first memorandum, some 20 public institutions benefited from over 30 million Euro worth of funding, between 2012 and 2015.



    CHILD WELFARE – The Romanian Ambassador to Oslo has held talks at the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, where he has underlined the Norwegian authorities taking into custody five children of a mixed Romanian-Norwegian family, with residence in Norway, is a social case with a huge emotional and media impact. He made the proposal to the Norwegian side to start political cooperation with the relevant Romanian authorities in order to manage the case, the spokesperson for the Romanian Foreign Ministry, Raluca Lunculescu, announced on Wednesday. She added that law observance and the familys sensibility had been taken into consideration before starting any form of public communication on the case. Earlier, the Norwegian Embassy in Bucharest explained that an order of foster care placement is issued only when the child has been severely neglected, maltreated or abused. Rallies of support for Ruth and Marius Bodnariu have been staged in several cities across Romania and abroad. We recall that the five children of the family, aged between 4 months and 10 years, have been taken into custody by the Norwegian state, for reportedly having been disciplined by their parents. Their father, Marius Bodnariu, of Romanian descent, denounces the move, deeming it an abuse but he admitted to having applied small physical corrections on children. A joint delegation of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies and Senate will pay an official visit to Oslo next week for talks with representatives of the Norwegian Parliament on child protection laws, starting from the Bodnariu case. In turn, President Klaus Iohannis expressed his support for the efforts made by the Romanian Government to assure “the observance of human rights for the Romanian citizens, wherever they may be.



    DIPLOMACY– Romanian Foreign Minister, Lazar Comanescu, on Thursday and Friday will attend the informal meeting on foreign policy and security related issues, Snow Meeting, at the invitation of his counterpart, Linas Linkevicius. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the event will bring together decision-makers and experts in foreign policy and security from NATO and EU member states, high ranking officials of the two organisations and academics. Security developments in NATOs eastern and southern neighbourhood, as well as the alliances response to such developments are the focal points of Snow Meeting 2016. Other issues high on the agenda of the meeting are the prospects of the NATO Summit due in Warsaw in July and the stage of implementation of the decisions made at the previous summit held in Great Britain in September 2014.



    STRASBOURG – An employer has the right to monitor the employees online communications during work time, according to a ruling issued by the European Court of Human Rights, following a complaint made by a Romanian engineer who got fired in 2007 for having spent time chatting on the computer during work time. He brought the issue to the European court, saying that by having his private conversations intercepted, his right to privacy was violated. In turn, the employer justified the decision to lay out the engineer for not using the electronic mail for professional purposes, but to communicate with his brother and girl-friend, against the backdrop of internal rules and regulations which forbid employees to use the companys resources for personal use. The man who was made redundant initially brought the issue to a Romanian court, which issued an unfavourable ruling, so he took the case to the European court, to no avail. In the ruling it issued, the European Court of Human Rights says an employer does not commit an abuse when checking on its employees to see whether or not they accomplish their professional tasks during work hours. Also, the European Court of Human Rights considers that the first Romanian court kept a correct balance between the employers interests and the observance of private correspondence confidentiality, because only transcripts of the conversations attesting to the fact that the employee used the companys computer for his personal interest during work time, have been used in court, and the identity of other people involved in the conversations has not been disclosed.



    MOLDOVA– The President of the Republic of Moldova (a former Soviet state with a predominantly Romanian speaking population), Nicolae Timofti, on Wednesday announced he had rejected the proposal made by the Democratic Party for the position of Prime Minister, namely the controversial businessman Vlad Plahotniuc. Timofti called on the parliamentary majority to come up with a new candidacy and underlined that his rejection of Plahotniuc is based on Constitutional provisions and on rulings issued by the Constitutional Court, which stipulate that the nomination of people suspected of integrity-related issues for leading positions runs counter to the principles of the rule of law. A member of the Democratic Party and backed by a heterogeneous majority, ranging from pro-European Liberals to ex-communists, who are traditionally of pro-Russian orientation, Plahotniuc is described by his opponents as an oligarch who has repeatedly been accused of involvement in illegal activities which mar the image of the Republic of Moldova. If a new government does not get endorsement until January 29, the President will have to dissolve Parliament and call for snap elections.



    SPORTS – Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, WTAs no.2, on Thursday will meet Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova (WTAs no.25) in the semi-finals of the Sydney tournament, with 687,000 dollars prize money up for grabs. Halep has an overall 3-2 lead on the Russian player in the direct matches.


    (Translated and edited by Diana Vijeu)