Radio România Internațional

Tag: local authorities

  • Local authorities ask for Government’s support

    Local authorities ask for Government’s support

    The representatives of Romanias County Council associations, of the Romanian municipalities, cities and communes have asked for support from the Government to ensure the co-financing of the projects run by the local communities and have also asked for solutions regarding the huge energy bills received by institutions. During a meeting with the Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciucă, the local authorities representatives have expressed their availability to be co-opted in consultations related to the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, so that the funding should be adapted to the needs of the communities.



    They have warned that the failure to make the reforms needed to implement the National Recovery and Resilience Plan – PNRR will turn the local communities into victims. During the discussions, the mayor of Cluj-Napoca (northwest), Emil Boc, has proposed that the guidelines for implementing the Plan should be developed together with the local authorities, because they know best the problems of the communities. Moreover, he has pointed out that Romania will lose money from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan – PNRR if it does not make the necessary reforms.



    Emil Boc: Romania risks losing money from the PNRR, if the ministers do not make the reforms required under the PNRR. The collateral victims will be the local administrations. These reforms are not made somewhere outside Romania. They are made by Romania for Romanians. The reforms will make this country much more functional, with benefits for every citizen.



    In turn, the mayor of Cugir (central Romania), Adrian Teban, has pointed out that, soon, smaller cities will no longer have money to pay energy bills, which have doubled and, in some cases, have even tripled.



    Adrian Teban: “In small and medium-sized cities, the pressure on local budgets is very high, with the rising energy prices. Larger municipalities can afford it. But small cities are facing more pressure.



    Regarding the communes’ problems, the local officials have also told the prime minister that in the future they will no longer have money to pay their employees, and the communes will be left without employees. On the other hand, the Government, through the Inter-ministerial Committee Coordinating the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, has promised to take steps to speed up reforms and continue efforts to implement the Plan.



    Romania needs balanced modernization and development, so that the investments available through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, as well as the other European and national funds, should benefit in a fair and integrated manner all communities and all citizens – the PM said during the meeting. At the same time, he has reviewed the measures taken by the Government to protect the population, the economic sectors and public institutions, such as the schools, hospitals and cultural institutions, from the effects of rising energy prices. (LS)

  • On the organization of local elections

    On the organization of local elections


    After the local elections of 2016 in Romania, many mayors rose to power without gathering much public support, having been elected in a single round of elections. Irrespective of voter turnout, which was low overall, the candidate grabbing the largest number of votes won the ballot, under a law introduced back in 2012. Looking ahead at the 2020 local elections, the Social-Democratic Party, sent to opposition by a no-confidence motion voted by Parliament, would rather keep the current system in place. The new Liberal Government wants to modify the law and return to the organization of two rounds of local elections, an idea supported by Save Romania Union, the Peoples Movement Party and President Klaus Iohannis himself. The president wants a partnership between central and local authorities, arguing it would be sensible if the Government would take responsibility for such a measure, if Parliament wont vote this law.



    “I want mayors to be elected in two ballots, and I am very keen on striking a real partnership between central administration, the Government, and local administration, so that all Romanians should get a chance to live in a well-managed administrative unit”.



    Also attending the General Assembly of the Association of Romanian Municipalities, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said:



    “The National Liberal Party has submitted to Parliament a bill whereby mayors are to be elected with half plus one of the total votes cast, which means holding two separate rounds of election. We support this bill and will try to rally the support of our political partners as well”.



    The President of the Association, Robert Negoita, himself mayor of a Bucharest district, referred to some of the problems facing mayors right now:



    “Weve tackled many issues pertaining to local public administration, the most important of which are income tax shares, which should stand at a minimum 65% and at 50% for social shares. Weve also discussed decentralization and things tied to the current activity of the local public administration, for instance the fact that we should be consulted every time when regulations and legislation affecting the local public administration needs changing”.



    The Social-Democratic Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians say they do not exclude a no-confidence motion against the Orban Cabinet if the Government passes an emergency decree to take responsibility over an election law that would stipulate the organization of local elections in two ballots.


    (translated by V. Palcu)


  • Parliament debates new tourism law

    Parliament debates new tourism law


    Romania boasts an excellent tourism potential, and this became obvious in
    recent years. The Danube Delta, a unique ecosystem in Europe, included in the
    UNESCO World Heritage, the mountain resorts in Prahova Valley and the seacoast
    resorts on the Romanian Black Seacoast, the Saxon fortified churches in
    Transylvania are but some of our country’s well-established tourist sites.
    Still, Romania’s tourism-generated income is significantly lower than those
    reported by neighboring Hungary or Bulgaria, for instance. The reasons
    identified by both specialists and the general public include insufficient
    promotion abroad, the lack of a comprehensive motorway network, underdeveloped
    hotels, mediocre services and tax evasion.

    On April 24 the Government passed a
    new tourism law, tacitly adopted by the Senate, which is now under debate in
    the Chamber of Deputies. Tourism Minister Bogdan Trif told Radio Romania that
    the law encompasses all the previous laws passed recently in the field and is
    aimed at regulating tourism-related activities. One of the major goals is
    decentralization. Therefore local authorities will now be responsible for
    classifying accommodation units, certifying ski tracks and mountain trails,
    authorizing beach segments, granting building permits or certifying local
    guides. The transfer of authority at local level will reduce costs
    significantly, Minister Trif claims.

    The new law also provides for the full
    digitization of the system, which is bound to offer an exact and swift image of
    the tourist industry, allowing operators to adapt their strategies. Therefore
    new control methods will become available, allowing Ministry inspectors to
    perform checks while posing as mere tourists, sharing tourist experience. The
    President of the Hotel Industry Federation in Romania, Calin Ile, says the new
    law represents a historic landmark, hailing the previous introduction of
    holiday vouchers for public sector employees, to be used in Romania
    exclusively, or the VAT slash for tourist services to 5%. Romania has become investor-friendly,
    investors’ appetite for doing tourism in Romania has gone up, Calin Ile went
    on to say. Romania has the potential, and the results will come soon, Calin Ile
    concludes, although not all of his peers seem to share his optimism.

    (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • Illegal Logging in Romania

    Illegal Logging in Romania


    In Romania, forested areas have
    dropped significantly in surface, reaching 28.95%, around 7 million hectares,
    below the EU average of 43%. Of this surface, about 415,000 ha belong to small
    scale owners, with under 100 ha, with a great degree of exposure to illegal
    logging for lack of supervision. Old-growth forests, lacking human
    intervention, account for less than 3% of the total surface, compared to 12% in
    1974. Many of these beech forests are part of the UNESCO world heritage. According
    to the latest Greenpeace report on illegal logging in Romania in 2017, the
    authorities have identified 12,487 cases nationally, around 34 per day, 32%
    more than in the previous year. Ciprian Galusca is the coordinator of the
    forest and biodiversity campaign with Greenpeace Romania:


    The counties with the most illegal logging are Mures, Brasov, and Olt,
    worsening compared to 2016. We have 8,000 violations on the books, 62% more
    than last year. On the whole, nationally, we have 200,000 cubic meters of wood
    getting cut illegally. Official data shows that between 2008 and 2014 8 million
    cubic meters got cut illegally, and of these the authorities have uncovered
    logging worth 200,000 cubic meters, meaning less than 2%. This means that,
    looking at the figures related to the phenomenon the authorities are not very
    effective at stopping it.


    The counties of Cluj, Maramures and
    Sibiu account for 54% of the volume of illegally cut wood in 2017 at the
    national level. Over 20,000 cases were investigated last year, up 15% from
    2016. In terms of prosecution, almost 5,500 cases were solved by prosecutors,
    up 26%, and only 605 were brought to court. 1,465 vehicles used for the
    transportation of illegally cut wood were confiscated, up 27.83% compared to
    the previous year, as indicated by Greenpeace Romania. Here is Ciprian Galusca
    once again:


    When we go to the forest to see what happens, we notice that illegal loggers
    are very well equipped. They are economic agents with high performance
    equipment, cutting trees with a high degree of efficiency. If we look at the
    vehicles confiscated by the authorities in 2017, however, we notice that there
    are a high number of horse drawn carts. It is impossible to tell clearly how
    much illegal wood is getting cut in Romania.


    In the last few years, the
    authorities in the country have implemented a number of systems and protocols
    meant to combat illegal logging, increasing transparency. However, the practice
    cannot be stopped, even though the environmental organizations are doing their
    best, according to Ciprian Galusca:


    Environmental organizations do their job, they draw attention to this
    issue, and offer solutions for the citizens to get involved. This is what
    Greenpeace does. Soon we will be launching a smartphone application for people
    to get involved in protecting forests in Romania, especially old-growth
    forests. The app will allow citizens to report suspected illegal cuttings right
    in the field, including a questionnaire by which they can identify whether or
    not a cutting is illegal. They can send the filled in questionnaire along with
    photos and GPS location. We will be analyzing the data, and possibly send in forest
    rangers to investigate. At the same time, the app will use recent satellite
    imagery, as recent as 2018, and will allow users to check the legality of wood
    transports.


    So far, civil society has played an
    important role in identifying illegal logging, according to the Greenpeace
    Report. According to an Ipsos poll conducted in 28 countries, Romanians are
    very worried about the deterioration of the environment. Seven out of ten
    Romanians say that deforestation is the main environmental problem at local
    level, with waste management in second place in terms of environmental issues
    in Romania. 34% of respondents share that opinion, with 32% saying that air
    pollution was the worst problem.

    (Translated by C. Cotoiu)

  • Decentralization, between principles and necessity

    Decentralization, between principles and necessity

    In the coming 3 months, all ministries in Romania will undertake impact studies related to the decentralization strategy, and in 7 months’ time, at the most, they will pass sectorial laws that will underlie the process of decentralization. These statements were made by the deputy Prime Minister Sevil Shhaideh at the end of the meeting in which the government coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats adopted the decentralization strategy. The domains included in the decentralization process are agriculture, education, healthcare, culture, the environment, youth, sports and tourism. The deputy Prime Minister Sevil Shhaideh has explained:



    “As regards agriculture, we will decentralize the implementation of policies regarding the rural areas’ sustainable development and management. In the cultural domain, decentralization will refer to the approval of leasing commissioning or to the approval of interventions on class B historical monuments. In the tourism field, decentralization will mean opportunities for transfer in relation to the issuance of tourism certificates, the classification of accommodation units, the certification of beaches for tourists, and the approval of technical documentation for constructions in the tourism field.”



    The advantage of decentralization is well known, in the sense that it brings all public services closer to citizens. But, are the local authorities ready, at present, to take over new competences? Sevil Shhaideh:



    “At present, we are not talking about the competences of local authorities, we are focusing on preparing the decentralization process. Decentralization must be done with the necessary human resources and the funds needed for exerting the respective competences. At present, we are only talking about impact analyses and sectorial laws, I believe the competences of local authorities will only be discussed starting next year.”



    Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu is convinced that decentralization will have a really good impact at local level. He called on the ministers involved in the process to begin talks on the topic of decentralization first at the level of ministries and then with the subordinated institutions, in order to avoid such situations when government agencies could be an obstacle in this process. It is not the first time when decentralization comes into discussion. In January 2014, the Constitutional Court decided that the decentralization law, for which the Ponta Government had assumed responsibility in Parliament, was unconstitutional. The Court judges then identified inconsistencies in terms of transferred competences and the legal status of assets. (Translated by L. Simion)

  • Problems faced by the local public administration

    Problems faced by the local public administration

    The national local development program in Romania will receive 30 billion lei worth of funding this year, with the government hoping the program will become operational as of the second half of the year. The announcement has been made by Deputy Prime Minister Sevil Shhaideh, who has said mayors can submit infrastructure projects within 30 days. “We should offer youngsters and people in general equal opportunities in life, irrespective of their place of birth, was the message conveyed by Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu to the mayors of Romanian communes who gathered in Bucharest on Monday.



    Hinting at the existence of “two Romanias, the Prime Minister emphasised the major differences between the Romanians living in urban and rural areas, respectively. “Some 47% of Romanias population is further living in rural areas. Approximately 80% of the countrys territory is administered by you, the communes mayors. Things have changed significantly, but we still have the impression that we have two Romanias: an urban Romania and a rural Romania, the Prime Minister said. “As long as it is in my power to allocate money to local communities, I will do it unhesitatingly. So, you can obviously count on me. Furthermore, all of us here make a team, which understands very well the necessity of developing this country and its rural areas, in particular, the Senate Speaker, co-president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, and the partner of the Social Democratic Party in the ruling coalition, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu has said.



    On that occasion, Tăriceanu launched the idea of setting up two state-owned banks, apart from the Savings Bank, with the aim of funding projects to the benefit of local communities. Tăriceanu explained his idea by saying that not all local authorities have enough resources to take part in important projects for their communities, although people want to lead a better life today and tomorrow and not in 20 or 40 years time.



    That is why, Tăriceanu said, sustained efforts are needed to develop rural areas and implement projects meant to improve the quality of peoples lives as soon as possible. The mayors gathered in Bucharest also received promises from the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, who said they would benefit from pay-rises once the new law on the unified payment system takes effect.



    Dragnea also said the mayors would receive incentives and bonuses if they manage to absorb European funds, adding that legal clarifications should be made for the mayors to know what they should and should not do, in order not to come into the focus of attention of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate. Public administration should “come out of this state of paralysis, with public servants no longer fearing to sign a document, said Liviu Dragnea. That is why, he underlined, the difference between legality and opportunity should be defined in Parliament. (Translated by D. Vijeu)