Radio România Internațional

Tag: President Iohannis

  • President Iohannis and the Romanian Diaspora

    President Iohannis and the Romanian Diaspora

    The Romanian community is important for Romania’s relationship with the United States, President Klaus Iohannis, who attended the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, has said. The President met on Thursday with members of the Romanian community in Philadelphia.



    Klaus Iohannis: “I have been paying special attention to the Diaspora from the very beginning, out of conviction. You are important to us. You are vital for nurturing a continuing relationship with your birth country and I count very much on you and on the other Romanians in the US when it comes to the Strategic Partnership between America and Romania.”



    Klaus Iohannis has also said that when the details of his visit to the US were set and after a thorough selection of the Romanian communities in that country, he chose to meet with the Romanians in Philadelphia. Iohannis also talked about his meeting with the US President Donald Trump in the first half of the year. “After that meeting our relationship became very strong and we managed to give a new dimension to the Strategic Partnership between the two countries,” Iohannis also said. Iohannis went on to say that President Trump showed at that moment that he highly appreciates the Romanian community in the US. Also during his visit to the US, Klaus Iohannis has announced he cancelled the visit he was supposed to pay to the neighboring Ukraine next month.



    He took this decision following the adoption, by the Kiev Parliament, of a new education law that limits the rights of the Romanian ethnics to study in their native language: “When I found out about this law I cancelled my visit to Ukraine and also the meeting with the Ukrainian Parliament Speaker that was due to take place at the presidential palace in September, thus conveying very strong diplomatic signals. It so happened that I met the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on the hallway of the UN headquarters, we greeted each other, of course, and I told him my concerns.”



    In response to the education law adopted in Kiev, Romania’s Parliament adopted a declaration saying that the new piece of legislation “drastically limits the right to education in their mother tongue of the Romanian ethnics in Ukraine, something that raised serious concerns in Romania.” As many as 400 thousand Romanian ethnics are currently living in Ukraine, most of them in the Romanian territories annexed by the USSR in 1940 and taken over by Ukraine in 1991 as successor state.




  • June 13, 2017 UPDATE

    June 13, 2017 UPDATE

    GRINDEANU CABINET — The fate of the Grindeanu Cabinet will be decided on Wednesday’s meeting of the Social Democratic Party’s Executive committee, which will assess each minister and discuss potential reshuffles. At the end of last week the party leader Liviu Dragnea, who is also the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, expressed his discontent regarding the activity of certain ministers. Dragnea said he rules out changing the entire structure of the cabinet. In turn, Prime Minister Sorin Grideanu said he is conducting his own analysis and said he was pleased with his Cabinet’s overall performance. In another development, the presidency announced it was monitoring political moves aimed at changing the Government’s structure.



    IOHANNIS — Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will pay an official visit to Berlin over June 19-21. The president will meet his German counterpart, Frank Walter Steinmeir and Chancellor Angela Merkel. Talks will focus on boosting bilateral relations and hot topics on the international and European agenda. On June 20 the President will be guest of honor in a ceremony commemorating the victims of refuge and expulsion at the German History Museum, where he will also deliver a speech. According to the presidency, 2017 marks 50 years since the launch of Romanian-German relations, 25 years since the cooperation and partnership agreement was signed between the two countries and 10 years since Romania joined the EU. Over June 22-23, president Iohannis will attend the European Summer Council, with migration, defense policy and Brexit as the main topics on its agenda. On the sidelines of the Council meeting Klaus Iohannis will also meet with the new French president, Emmanuel Macron.



    PROSECUTION – Romanian prosecutors re-started the criminal prosecution of the former president of Romania Traian Basescu, for abuse of office in the so called ‘Flora’ case, after judges with the High Court of Cassation and Justice admitted the request filed by the Prosecutor’s Office. The case was re-opened after a businessman filed a complaint, accusing Traian Basescu of having illegally returned, back in 2003, when he was the mayor of Bucharest, a 40,000 square meter piece of land. The commercial complex ‘Flora’ was later built on that ground. The businessman claims that Basescu abused his office by endorsing the return of the property, and the damage is estimated at more than 100 million Euros.



    STATISTICS – According to the National Statistics Institute, the average income in Romania went up by 1% in April, reaching the equivalent of 520 Euro, which is a historic record. The most significant increases were reported in relation to financial transactions and auxiliary activities, while decreases were recorded in the oil and natural gas extraction industry and in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. In another development, the number of pensioners dropped to under 5.2 million, and the average pension went up by 8.1%, reaching some 220 Euro. The pensioners/employees ratio is still 9 to10, which means that 10 employees support 9 pensioners.



    COMMEMORATION — The first president in post-communist Romania, Ion Iliescu, the then Prime Minister Petre Roman and Intelligence chief Virgil Magureanu were indicted and accused of crimes against humanity on Tuesday in the case investigating the miners’ raids of June 13-15, 1990, which put an end to a large-scale rally against the left wing power instated after the fall of the communist dictatorship in December 1989. Against the background of violent clashes in the capital, which the army had already managed to stifle, the then president of the country Ion Iliescu claimed the right wing had planned a coup and called on the population to defend the democratic institutions. As a result of the call, miners from Jiu Valley came to Bucharest and attacked the University, the headquarters of the main opposition parties and the offices of independent publications. Their raids ended in four deaths, hundreds of people wounded and more than one thousand people arrested abusively. Romania’s image abroad was also affected by the violent raid of June 1990.



    RUSSIA — The Kremlin on Tuesday said the unauthorized anticorruption protests organized by opposition leader Aleksei Navalny are a threat to public opinion. Navalny was sentenced to 30 days in prison. In turn, Russian officials said they will not respond to Washington’s plea to release the protesters from arrest. Large protests were staged in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the Russian riot police launching an assault on the crowd after protests started voicing anti-regime slogans. Some 2,000 people were arrested, including scores of students and young people. (Translated by V. Palcu)

  • Referendum on the anti-corruption fight

    Referendum on the anti-corruption fight

    On Monday, one day after tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the Government’s decision to grant collective pardon and amend the Criminal Code, the Romanian President announced he would call all Romanians to express their opinion in a referendum on sensitive issues related to the judiciary. The reason invoked by the president was that the Social Democratic Party, the decisive winner of the December elections, made no mention of their intentions in the election campaign.



    The content of the bills and the way they were about to be passed, through emergency ordinances that could produce immediate effects, scandalized public opinion. The General Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate and DIICOT- the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism also leveled tough criticism against the government’s intention. The government is suspected of trying to aid corrupt people or partially decriminalize abuse of office through these ordinances.



    In turn, the Justice Minister claims that he was obliged to urgently pass these measures in order to deal with the situation of overcrowded penitentiaries and to harmonize the criminal law with decisions of the Constitutional Court. In what commentators call the chess game between the president and his Social-Democratic adversaries, the former made a first move and started the referendum procedure. The themes of the referendum are the continuation of the fight against corruption and the integrity of the public office. Pardoning cannot be the topic of a referendum, so it remains to be seen how the question will be asked at the referendum.



    In another development, in Strasbourg, President Iohannis talked about the bills on pardoning and amnesty with the president of the European Court of Human Rights, and announced the court had not put any pressure and had not threatened to fine the Romanian state with 80 million euros in relation to the situation in the Romanian prisons. A pilot decision of the European Court of Human Rights will be made public in the first half of this year. Klaus Iohannis:



    “They will show what is not working properly, will identify the problems and will give a generous deadline for Romania to be able to work out solutions. The next step would be to work out a package of measures here in Romania, probably under the coordination of the justice ministry, which should improve the situation in the Romanian prisons. Some persons in Romania wrongly promoted the idea that pardoning was requested. Pardoning is just a possible solution, a small part of a package that has to be drafted by the Romanian authorities”.



    The action of President Iohannis is supported by the opposition Liberal Party and Save Romania Union, but the Social Democrats give the president’s actions political connotations. The leader of the Social Democrats says the recent actions of the president are nothing but an electoral move. Liviu Dragnea:



    “The president started a very wrong campaign which will have negative effects on him, the campaign will probably awake those who voted him in 2014. The president’s actions risk affecting the country’s stability, which is appreciated in America and Europe”.



    Parliament has a 20-day deadline, starting on Tuesday, to take the president’s decision to start the referendum under advisement. Irrespective of the parliament’s answer, the president can issue the decree calling the referendum. (Translated by L. Simion)

  • The Week, 21-27 March

    The Week, 21-27 March

    Romania, in solidarity with Belgium after Brussels terrorist attacks


    Romania has joined the international community in firmly condemning the bloody attacks carried out in Brussels on Tuesday, which killed scores and injured hundreds of people, of 40 nationalities, among which 4 Romanians. In memory of those who fell victim to the attacks claimed by the Islamic State terrorist organisation, Romania observed a day of national mourning on Thursday. In token of solidarity, the government building in Bucharest was lit in the colours of the Belgian flag, and a book of condolences was opened at the Belgian Embassy in Bucharest. Romanias President, Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, politicians, foreign ambassadors accredited to Bucharest and ordinary people, alike, left messages in the book. The Romanian President said the scourge of terrorism can be combated only by solidarity and unity, and the Prime Minister underlined that in such situations the solution is to boost cooperation between the EU member states.



    The Romanian President paid an official visit to Turkey


    During his official visit to Ankara on Wednesday and Thursday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, firmly condemned terrorism and stood for solidarity. Iohannis said countries should have a common and clear response, in the effort to combat the attacks. He underlined that Turkey, as a country which is hosting a large number of refugees on its territory, plays a key role in solving the migrant crisis, in terms of humanitarian assistance, the control of the migration inflow and the fight against networks of human traffickers. Klaus Iohannis:



    Klaus Iohannis: “This visit comes against the backdrop of a complicated geopolitical and regional context. There are many security risks and challenges that we should face and find solutions to. I am confident that together, based on a strong partnership between Romania and Turkey, we can better manage these risks. Our citizens want security and prosperity.



    Ways to combat terrorism and the migration crisis were also approached during President Iohannis talks with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The two sides agreed to boosting bilateral cooperation in several fields. Iohannis and Davutoglu also approached the need to boost bilateral cooperation based on the Strategic Partnership between the two countries, to enhance cooperation in the Black Sea area and within NATO. The two officials laid special emphasis on economic cooperation, given that Turkey is Romanias largest non-EU trade partner and the fifth largest world partner. The two countries also intend to increase the volume of trade, up to 10 billion dollars. Klaus Iohannis also met in Istanbul with representatives of the Romanian community in Turkey.



    The Prime Ministers Control Unit presents the conclusions of the report on the Colectiv nightclub tragedy in Bucharest


    Nearly five months after the devastating fire at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest, which killed 64 people and wounded another 200, the Prime Ministers Control Unit made public a report on the events that night. The document reveals that response operations on the night of the fire were largely uncoordinated and improvised. The situation was caused due to the lack of training in emergency situations, legislative inconsistencies and the scarcity of materials, the report also states. According to the same document, the code red intervention plan was not started immediately, being delayed by bureaucratic procedures, although at least one of the calls received clearly signalled the seriousness of the situation, in which case the legislation in force allows for the use of faster intervention mechanisms. The report also notes that there were institutions that did their job properly and others that did not, such as the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations.




    Work-to-rule strike action in the Romanian health sector

    Some 12,000 medical staff in Romania this week called a work-to-rule strike. Their demands concern a consistent salary system, the payment of bonuses and observing working and rest hours. Family physicians have also started a protest this week, unhappy with the low budget allocations and the faulty IT system. Here is the vice-president of the National Association of Family Medicine, Sandra Alexiu:


    Sandra Alexiu: The most important thing we demand is better funding for family medicine. This year we got even less funds than in previous years, way below the European average allocation to family physicians. Whereas the budget share is 9% at European level, we only get 5,8%, which makes family medicine a difficult job.


    Mondays strike action is the first in a series of protests trade unions in the health sector say will continue also in April.

  • Romania and the Need for a Reformed Parliament

    Romania and the Need for a Reformed Parliament

    Unlike other presidents that Romania has had after the fall of communism, such as Ion Iliescu and Traian Basescu, the current president, Klaus Iohannis, has never been a Parliament member. A former mayor of the city of Sibiu between 2000 and 2014, representing the German Democratic Forum, Iohannis became a member of a major political party only in 2013, when he joined the National Liberal Party. This is why, pundits say, he is so good at expressing citizens dissatisfaction with the legislative body and the petty political games that senators and deputies in important parties are playing.



    On Wednesday, President Iohannis did not hesitate to ask Parliament for more coherence in drawing up the laws. In a speech delivered before the Parliaments plenary session, Iohannis warned that the repeated revision of laws is affecting key fields like Education and Health. The head of state mentioned the example of the Education Law, which has been revised 26 times. Also, the Health Law has been revised 114 times, the Local Administration Law 38 times, the Labor Code 28 times and the Public Procurement Law 35 times. This can only trigger growing dissatisfaction among citizens. Klaus Iohannis:


    Klaus Iohannis: “Ive recently seen a study which shows that 80% of Romanians are unhappy with the laws being so difficult to understand. The fact that people want laws that are clearer and more simple, that do not change overnight, should not surprise anyone. The habit of passing a law today only to change it through an emergency ordinance tomorrow must be given up.



    The President has proposed that MPs replace this counterproductive and expensive manner of legislating with a different one:



    Klaus Iohannis: “A flexible legislation, in keeping with the societys needs and expectations, free of populism and likely to last in time should become the priority of the entire political class.



    Over the last years, tens of MPs from the power and opposition, from the left and right wing, have been investigated and eventually sentenced to prison for their involvement in corruption cases. A lack of response and often the refusal to leave their colleagues without immunity, as requested by anti-corruption prosecutors, has affected the image of the Romanian Parliament.



    “In my opinion, a strong Parliament also means a fair position as to the judiciary. Respect for the law also means respect for the justice system. I have informed you every time that this principle was violated, not because I mean to interfere with Parliaments work, but because the way in which this institution answers requests from the judiciary can affect its credibility, President Iohannis has also said. After the speech, representatives of both the Social-Democratic power and the Liberal opposition have expressed their willingness to make efforts to improve the image of the Parliament, which currently enjoys the trust of only 10 to 12% of Romanians.

  • Political Negotiations in Bucharest

    Political Negotiations in Bucharest

    Almost three months after the organizational disaster that defined November’s presidential elections, which affected mostly Romanian voters in the Diaspora, the unfortunate episode has not been erased from the public agenda.



    The election winner, Klaus Iohannis, is now proposing a less complicated election system, likely to ease the voting process especially for the Romanians outside the country borders. Changing the general voting system is a topic that Klaus Iohannis has discussed with parliamentary parties. The President proposed, among other things, a calendar for the endorsement of the new election law, having as deadline the end of this year’s first parliamentary session.


    Klaus Iohannis: “We have agreed that by the end of the first parliamentary session we should have a law on the voting system in the Diaspora, new laws on the local and parliamentary elections and also on the financing of parties and election campaigns.”



    The election law needs to be improved, so that Romanians abroad can cast their votes in the best conditions, party representatives have said. There have been several proposals in this respect. The main party in the left-of-center coalition in power, the Social Democratic Party, through the voice of his leader, PM Victor Ponta, has proposed that the Standing Election Authority should also organize the elections abroad. The Conservative Party, another member of the ruling coalition, as well as the representatives of national minorities, supports this idea.



    On the other hand, according to Vasile Blaga, co-leader of the center-right National Liberal Party, the main opposition party wants a vote-by-mail system to be introduced.



    Vasile Blaga: “We are consistent with our ideas and we believe that Romanian citizens must be allowed to cast their vote no matter where they are on the day of voting. That is why we support the vote-by-mail system”.



    The Dan Diaconescu Party of the People, in opposition, shares the Liberals’ view and has, in turn, two exotic initiatives of their own — a compulsory voting system and setting the voting age at 16. According to political analysts, not being an election year makes 2015 the best time for a serious debate on election laws that should generate voter-friendly solutions at home and abroad. It’s been too long since election laws have been serving party interests instead of voters and now it is time to change that.