Radio România Internațional

Tag: protests

  • March 7, 2025

    March 7, 2025

    EU The European Union has put together an arms plan agreed on Thursday evening by the leaders of the member states. The plan will prioritise strengthening defence on the eastern flank, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, to withstand Russia’s expansionist tendencies. European leaders have once again expressed their support for Ukraine and for providing security guarantees, together with the United States, if a ceasefire is agreed. Member states will have a fund of EUR 150 billion available for defence spending. The priorities are air and missile defence systems, artillery, high-precision strike systems, drones and anti-drone systems, various types of ammunition and AI technology. The Baltic states, Poland and Romania have garnered support for their view of prioritising the eastern flank in terms of EU-funded projects.

     

    TREASON The Bucharest Court of Appeals last night ordered that 2 members of the so-called “Vlad Ţepeş” Command be placed under pre-trial arrest. They are charged with treason and ties to Russian agents. Four other members of the organisation are under court supervision for a period of 60 days. Radu Theodoru, a retired major general, aged 101, is also being investigated as a suspect in the case. According to the Directorate Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism Offences, the group aimed to replace the constitutional order and pull Romania out of NATO.

     

    ELECTIONS The non-affiliated mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, has today submitted his candidacy and list of support signatures for the presidential elections in May to the Central Electoral Bureau. The independent candidate Călin Georgescu, backed in the presidential race by AUR and POT parties (in opposition), will also register his candidacy today. On Sunday, the former Liberal leader Crin Antonescu, backed by the ruling coalition’s electoral alliance, “Romania Forward”, is expected to arrive at the BEC headquarters. Another competitor is the former Social-Democratic prime minister Victor Ponta, who announced that he will run as an independent and that he will register his candidacy next week. Prospective presidential candidates have one week left to register with the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC), as the registration deadline is March 15. Candidates must submit lists with at least 200,000 supporter signatures.

     

    ECONOMY Romania’s economy grew by 0.9% last year, and in the last quarter of 2024 the GDP rose by 0.7% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2023 and by 0.8% compared to the third quarter of 2024, according to unaudited data released on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INS). The 2.9% drop in net exports, a result of the 3.6% decrease in exports of goods and services concurrently with a 3.4% increase in imports, had a negative impact on GDP growth.

     

    PROTEST Trade unionists at the Damen Shipyard, operated by a Dutch company in the south-eastern Romanian town of Mangalia, jointly with employees who have been laid off or idled, today picketed the Dutch Embassy and the headquarters of the administrator in Bucharest. The announcement was made by the “Navalistul” Union, which said in a statement that the action aims to warn against the major crisis the shipyard is facing. According to the source, there is a risk that the shipyard will be closed, which will affect the entire local community.

     

    SPORTS Romania’s champions CS Dinamo Bucharest defeated the Danish side Fredericia HK, 37-32 on Thursday evening in Odense in its last match in Group A of the men’s handball Champions League. Dinamo, which had already qualified for the play-offs, finished the group in fifth place and will face the German team SC Magdeburg in their effort to qualify into the quarter-finals. In football, Romanian champions FCSB were defeated at home by the French team Olympique Lyon, 3-1, in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16. The decisive leg will be played next week in France. (AMP)

  • January 25, 2025

    January 25, 2025

    RATING The financial rating agency Standard & Poor’s confirmed Romania’s ‘BBB minus’ rating, but revised the outlook from “stable” to “negative”. The reasons are related to high fiscal and external risks, the agency reports. According to S&P, the fragmented and uncertain political environment, as well as all the substantial spending ahead of the elections, pushed the fiscal deficit to almost 8.7% of GDP, far above expectations. The Romanian finance minister Tánczos Barna says the change in the outlook from stable to negative indicates that measures are needed to reduce the budget deficit, and that the country needs a balanced public budget and a streamlined government structure. He also said that the government’s measures to reduce the deficit and consolidate economic growth must be implemented at an alert pace, in the form already agreed on with the EU.

     

    PROTESTS The government of Romania is completely willing to find solutions to protect people’s spending power while at the same time preserving macro-economic balance, the prime minister’s office chief said after talks with representatives of the employees who protested in front of the Government headquarters. On Friday, thousands of civil servants, reserve officers, police staff, miners, foresters, steelworkers, Bucharest Metro employees and pensioners took part in a rally to protest a government order that froze salary increases for many public sector personnel at the beginning of this year, and suspended the cost-of-living adjustment of public pensions. A reorganisation of central public institutions and state-owned companies was also announced these days. According to PM Marcel Ciolacu, restructuring the public sector is a priority for the current governing coalition comprising the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania.

     

    UKRAINE The president of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, is meeting today in Kyiv with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with PM Denys Shmykhal and with the Parliament Speaker, Ruslan Stefanchuk. The main topics of the discussions are the connection of the infrastructure of the two states, trade, collaboration in the EU accession process, and regional security. An important topic on the agenda is the energy crisis caused by Russia, which has increased energy prices and left the citizens of Transnistria, a Russian-speaking breakaway region in the Republic of Moldova, without heat and electricity. The rest of Moldova is safe for the time being, thanks to electricity and gas imports from neighboring Romania.

     

    ELECTIONS The Liberals will convene on Sunday in a special National Council meeting to validate the former party president Crin Antonescu as the joint candidate of the ruling coalition in Romania. The Social Democrats scheduled a special congress on February 2 for the same purpose, and UDMR will make its decision at the beginning of next week. The first and second rounds of the presidential elections are scheduled for May 4 and 18. So far, the mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, the independent candidate Călin Georgescu and the president of Save Romania Union, Elena Lasconi, have announced plans to run for president. The latter two were top placed in the presidential elections canceled last year. After the first election round on November 24 was validated, the Constitutional Court of Romania canceled the election as a whole on December 6, although voting in the second round had already begun abroad. The Court made its decision after the Supreme Defence Council published a report indicating foreign interference in the electoral process, but investigations have so far failed to confirm it. Tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets to demand that the second round be resumed.

     

    HOLOCAUST The minister of culture Natalia Intotero will represent Romania, on Monday, at the ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. The event, held under the patronage of the president of Poland, marks the International Holocaust Remembrance Day declared by the United Nations, and brings together camp survivors, official delegations of states and international organisations. Romania’s participation in the ceremony on January 27 reflects its solid commitment to keeping alive the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, to fighting all forms of denial, distortion, or downplaying of this tragic moment, as well as to fighting anti-Semitism, xenophobia, radicalisation and hate speech, while at the same time promoting respect for fundamental human rights, both at national and international level, the Romanian culture ministry said.

     

    HOSTAGES Four Israeli female soldiers held hostage by Hamas since October 7, 2023, have reached Israel today. In exchange for them, Israel must release 200 Palestinians held in its prisons. This is the second prisoner exchange under the ceasefire that came into effect last Sunday between Israel and Hamas, after 15 months of war. In a first stage, which will last 6 weeks, 33 Israeli hostages are to be released in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners. A Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 killed 1,210 Israelis, most of them civilians. Of the 251 people kidnapped, 91 are still in Gaza, 34 of whom are dead according to the Israeli army. In retaliation, Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip, resulting in at least 47,000 casualties, most of them civilians, and a humanitarian disaster. (AMP)

  • January 24, 2024

    January 24, 2024

    CELEBRATION Military and religious ceremonies, performances and exhibitions took place on Friday in all the major cities in Romania, marking the Union of the Principalities. In Orthodox churches, special services were performed and bells were rung for a minute. 166 years ago, on January 24, 1859, Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected ruler of Wallachia, after having been elected ruler of Moldavia on January 5. The political decision by the principalities to unite was the first stage in the creation of the modern Romanian state. Leading politicians sent messages on the Day of the Union of the Romanian Principalities. “January 24 is a moment of assessment and reflection on the legacy of our ancestors and on the responsibility we have to preserve and promote it,” president Klaus Iohannis emphasised. PM Marcel Ciolacu pointed out that the Union is an example of how an important political project undertaken in accordance with the will of the people can become reality. Romanians enjoy an extended weekend on this occasion, as Union Day has been declared a public holiday. Many have chosen to spend it in mountain resorts.

     

    PROTEST Railway workers, reserve officers, police staff, miners, foresters, steelworkers, Bucharest Metro employees and pensioners Friday took part in a protest rally in front of the Government headquarters. People are unhappy with the government order that froze salary increases for many public sector personnel at the beginning of this year, and because public pensions are no longer adjusted to the inflation rate. According to Radio Romania, a trade union delegation had talks with government officials, but without results. A reorganisation of central public institutions and state-owned companies was also announced these days. According to PM Marcel Ciolacu, restructuring the public sector is a priority for the current governing coalition comprising the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania.

     

    DIPLOMACY The Romanian foreign minister Emil Hurezeanu will have a meeting with NATO’s secretary general Mark Rutte at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, January 28, reads a statement from the North Atlantic Alliance. On January 14, Emil Hurezeanu received the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, James O’Brien. According to a foreign ministry news release, on that occasion the Romanian official appreciated the US contribution to the security and defense of NATO’s Eastern Flank, as well as to the development of the strategic approach to the Black Sea region. The two officials also appreciated the bilateral relationship, highlighting ‘significant’ achievements such as Romania’s inclusion in the Visa Waiver program, the development of economic and energy sector cooperation, and coordinated Romania – US – EU action.

     

    ELECTIONS The Liberals will convene on Sunday in a special National Council meeting to validate the former party president Crin Antonescu as the joint candidate of the ruling coalition in Romania in the presidential elections in May. The Social Democrats scheduled a special congress on February 2 for the same purpose, and UDMR will make its decision at the beginning of next week. The first and second rounds of the presidential elections are scheduled for May 4 and 18. So far, the mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, the independent candidate Călin Georgescu and the president of Save Romania Union, Elena Lasconi, have announced plans to run for president. The latter two were top placed in the presidential elections canceled last year. After the first election round on November 24 was validated, the Constitutional Court of Romania canceled the election as a whole on December 6, although voting in the second round had already begun abroad. The Court made its decision after the Supreme Defence Council published a report indicating foreign interference in the electoral process, but investigations have so far failed to confirm it. Tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets to demand that the second round be resumed.

     

    CORRUPTION The mayor of the popular Romanian mountain resort of Sinaia, the Liberal Vlad Oprea, was placed under court supervision on Thursday, with bail set at over EUR 100,000, as part of a corruption-related investigation. Charges of abuse of office also entailed a ban on him holding the mayor position. According to prosecutors with the National Anticorruption Directorate, among other things, Vlad Oprea allegedly demanded and received almost EUR 240,000 in bribe from a businessman, in exchange for expediting the paperwork for the building of a hotel in the resort.

     

    EXPULSION The Romanian Embassy in Belgrade has asked for clarifications from the Serbian authorities as to why a Romanian national was expelled from the country. Other EU and third country citizens taking part in an NGO training workshop were also involved in the incident. The Romanian, a member of an organisation involved in social projects, was taken to a police station in Belgrade, along with other participants in the workshop. Without explanation, but citing national security reasons, they were ordered to leave Serbia within 24 hours, and banned from entering this country for one year. The Romanian national left the country safely. The expulsion of EU citizens from Serbia is unprecedented. (AMP)

  • Restructuring plans spark protests

    Restructuring plans spark protests

     

    A huge deficit and a European Commission hanging over the government like a sword of Damocles, insisting that Bucharest take measures to reduce it, are prompting the Romanian coalition government to take very unpopular decisions already.

     

    After many public sector employees saw their inflation adjustments and salary increases frozen under a government order at the beginning of 2025, and after public pensions were no longer adjusted to the inflation rate, as previously promised, these days the news came of a reorganisation of central public institutions and state-owned companies.

     

    On Wednesday, the Parliament leaders announced that the number of civil servants would be reduced by approximately 400, which led to a spontaneous protest of Parliament staff in the halls of the institution. The Liberal Ilie Bolojan, speaker of the Senate, announced that about 180 civil servant posts out of a total of nearly 800 will be slashed in that chamber, and the car fleet or fuel quota will be cut down. Ilie Bolojan:

     

    Ilie Bolojan: “Instead of 796 positions in all at present, we will have around 618 positions. The colleagues who will leave will not be dismissed by anyone. Where the number of executive positions will be cut down, under the law, competitions will be organised. I guarantee that there will be no political influence whatsoever.”

     

    In the Chamber of Deputies as well, over 200 posts out of a roughly 1,100 will be cut, said the Social Democratic speaker of the Chamber, Ciprian Şerban.

     

    Save Romania Union has asked the leaders of the governing coalition comprising the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania to make public all the measures to reduce government spending, as well as the personnel selection criteria, “to ensure that the people who are kept on are competent, and not just party followers.”

     

    In turn, several trade union federations have voiced support for the Parliament employees in danger of losing their jobs. The National Federation of Public Administration Trade Unions sees the way in which the restructuring measures are taken and communicated as abusive and non-transparent, while the leaders of the Union of Parliamentary Civil Servants and the Union of Contracted Personnel claim that the reorganisation lacks fairness.

     

    Romanians have mixed feelings about the move. While some applaud the measures, others are against them, arguing that the reduction in the number of positions in Parliament should start with the senators and deputies themselves, based on a 2009 referendum on the transition to a single-chamber parliament of 300 seats.

     

    In the last 4 years, the number of public sector employees has increased by 56,000, claim those who support the government’s actions. In contrast, others argue that public sector employees include, for example, employees in education, healthcare, the army and the police, sectors which have been complaining about staff shortages for years. (AMP)

     

  • January 23, 2025

    January 23, 2025

    Protest – Railway workers, reserve military, policemen, miners, foresters, steel workers or employees of the Bucharest Subway system are expected, on Friday, at a rally organized near the government headquarters, against the background of the dissatisfaction generated by the social and salary policies of the governing coalition made up of the PSD-PNL-UDMR, the Federation of Railway Transporters’ Unions from Romania (FSTFR) announces. It estimates the number of participants in the protest will stand at 30,000.

     

    Corruption – The mayor of Sinaia, the most popular resort on the Prahova Valley (southern Romania), the liberal Vlad Oprea, was brought to the headquarters of the National Anticorruption Directorate on Thursday, to be heard in a case. According to the prosecutors, he claimed and received bribe of almost 240,000 Euros from a businessman, in order to facilitate the issuance of the necessary documentation for the construction of a hotel in the city. Oprea is also accused that, between July 2019 and January 2024, he allowed the unauthorized activity of providing public catering services for a restaurant in Sinaia, in order to obtain undue benefits.

     

    Captivity – The Romanian Foreign Ministry announces that the Romanian sailor from the crew of the ship “Galaxy Leader”, freed from Yemen, is safe and sound. The crew has been in captivity for more than a year after the Houthi rebel group captured the ship, at the start of a series of attacks on ships in the Red Sea motivated by Israel’s war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. The 25 sailors from the Philippines, Mexico, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine were detained in November 2023 by Houthi fighters, who used a helicopter to board the cargo ship running between Turkey and India. A Houthi-controlled Yemeni television station said the crew had been freed and handed over to Oman, following the completion of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, which took effect on Sunday. The release comes after months of diplomacy work involving the sailors’ home countries, as well as the UN’s International Maritime Organization. The Romanian Foreign Ministry specifies that the action is the result of the efforts of the Foreign Intelligence Service and the other institutions within the crisis cell. The Romanian authorities also thank the external partners, especially the Sultanate of Oman and neighboring Bulgaria, for the important support given to solving this complex and extremely difficult case.

     

    Football – The Romanian football champion, FCSB, from Bucharest, plays, this evening, away from home, in Baku, against the Azerbaijani team Qarabag FK, in the seventh stage of the Europa League. With two stages before the end of the main phase of the competition, FCSB is in 10thplace, with 11 points, and Qarabag is in 33rdplace, with 3 points. The first eight teams in the ranking will qualify for the round of 16, while the teams from 9th to the 24th positions will play a play-off to qualify for the round of 16. FCSB still is to play the famous English team Manchester United, at home, on January 30.

     

    Reorganization – The reorganization of central public institutions and of state-owned companies in Romania, with a view to reducing budget expenses, is dissatisfying more and more employees. Several ministries have already announced reorganizations and staff reductions. The Parliament leadership also announced the reduction of civil servant positions by approximately 400, which led to a spontaneous protest by the employees in the halls of the institution.

     

    Drones – A new disinformation by the Russian media, regarding last week’s drone attacks against the civilian port infrastructure in Ukraine, near the border with Romania, was denounced by the Romanian Ministry of National Defense. The Kremlin propaganda falsely claimed that the Russian attack drones targeted an operation to transport Romanian soldiers or Romanian mercenaries from the Romanian shore to the Ukrainian one. According to the phantasmagoric scenario, the forces of the Romanian Army would have intervened in the unfolding of the events and would have opened fire on the Russian drones with equipment deployed on the Romanian territory. The alleged confrontation would have resulted in numerous victims on the Romanian side, dead and wounded. But all this did not happen, states the Romanian Defense Ministry. These “ungrounded aberrations”, as the Defense Ministry calls them, are part of the pattern of Russian operations to influence and manipulate public opinion in both the Romanian and NATO areas.

     

    TikTok – The vice-president of the European Parliament, the Romanian social democrat Victor Negrescu, states that the EC will present in a relatively short time its report on the interference, through the Chinese network TikTok, in the presidential election in Romania. The European Commission can come up with specific recommendations or impose a fine for that network – said the social democratic MEP. He added that the Vice-President of the Commission for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, spoke about the possibility that all social networks, not just TikTok, which intervene in democratic debates and elections, could be subject to stricter control and could be sanctioned if they violate the European legislation in the matter. (LS)

  • January 18, 2025 UPDATE

    January 18, 2025 UPDATE

    Protest – Thousands of members and supporters of the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), the main opposition party in Romania’s Parliament, protested on Saturday in Bucharest and across Romania, demanding, among other things, the resumption of the second round of the presidential election. They criticized the court’s decision by which the action opened by the independent candidate Călin Georgescu in the case of the cancellation of the presidential election was definitively rejected and said that it defies millions of Romanians who demand the resumption of the second round of voting and that it ignores the lack of clear evidence. Organized on time, on November 24, 2024, the first round was invalidated by the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR), which, based on documents provided by the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT), invoked the interference of a so-called state actor. The second round, scheduled for December 8, was to be contested by Georgescu, accused of connections with Russia, and the opposition Save Romania Union (USR) leader Elena Lasconi. In the diaspora, where the polling stations for the decisive round opened on December 6, tens of thousands of Romanians had already voted when the CCR decided to invalidate the first round. The costs of the invalidated election allegedly stand at almost 1.4 billion lei (the equivalent of about 280 billion Euros). On December 21, the acting president’s second and last five-year presidential mandate was to expire, according to the Constitution, but his mandate was extended until the election of a new president to be validated by the CCR.

     

    NATO – Hundreds of British military vehicles are on their way to Romania, loaded on ferries, to take part in a major NATO exercise, the British government announced. 2,400 British soldiers, with 730 military vehicles, will form the main battle group, supported by representatives of five other NATO countries, and the United Kingdom will ensure the command of the land component. The new allied reaction force replaced the NATO response force last year and aims to quickly and effectively respond to any threat in peacetime, crisis or conflict.

     

    Tennis – The Romanian-Ukrainian pair Gabriela Ruse/Marta Kostiuk qualified for the round of 16 of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, after defeating the pair Elise Mertens (Belgium)/Ellen Perez (Australia) 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday in Melbourne. In another second round match, the Romanian Jaqueline Cristian and her Italian partner Camilla Rosatello were defeated by the pair Leylah Fernandez (Canada)-Nadia Kicenok (Ukraine), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Jaqueline Cristian was also defeated in the singles by the German Eva Lys 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the third round.

     

    Intelligence Service – The Romanian Intelligence Service presented new details about the strategic objectives in Romania that a Colombian citizen intended to blow up, at the instigation of a person from Russia. The target was a recyclable waste deposit, two oil extraction wells and a Natural Gas Regulating Metering Station. Luis Alfonso Murillo Diosa was sent to court last November for crimes against national security. According to the investigators, the Colombian was affiliated with an extensive network of saboteurs, controlled through intermediaries by the Russian secret services, which targeted several European states. A former military, trained in intelligence gathering activities, Diosa arrived on Romanian territory in July 2024.

     

    Fair – Romania will participate in the largest organic products fair in the world, BioFach 2025, which will take place in Nuremberg (Germany) between February 11-14, announced the Bio-Romania Association, supported by the Romanian Government through the Romanian Agency for Investments and Foreign Trade. According to the Association, Romania has been present for 20 years at this event dedicated to agriculture and ecological products. Since 1990, BioFach has become the essential meeting point for organic food producers worldwide, offering networking opportunities and a place where ideas can be exchanged between all actors in the value chain of the organic sector.

     

    US – The inauguration ceremony of the US President-Elect, Donald Trump, will be moved indoors, as the weather forecast for Monday in Washington indicates very low temperatures, the American press announces. Therefore, the swearing-in ceremony, which was supposed to take place on the steps of the Capitol, will take place inside the Capitol Rotunda, just as it was done at the ceremony for the second term of the former president Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump has told his supporters that they will be able to see the inauguration ceremony on screens located inside the Capital One Arena, a sports arena in Washington with a capacity of 20,000 people. The transition team announced that, on Monday, Donald Trump would again use his own Bible, and also the “Lincoln Bible”, a copy known by this name because it was the holy book used by the 16th president of the USA , Abraham Lincoln. The Republican leader also used these two copies when taking the oath for his first mandate, in 2017, the EFE agency reports. (LS)

  • January 18, 2025

    January 18, 2025

    Protests – Thousands of policemen and other employees from the fields of defense, public order and national security protested, on Friday, in Bucharest, against the provisions of the government ordinance to reduce the budget deficit, which came into force at the beginning of the month. They requested the Government to review the provisions of the aforementioned document, which significantly reduces their income by not paying overtime worked on weekends or public holidays. Thus the protesters say the incomes of operative police officers will be drastically affected, with decreases between 1,000 lei (€200) and 2,000 lei (€400). The PM Marcel Ciolacu said that the issue of paying overtime in the field of public order will be regulated with priority at the beginning of next month, in Parliament.

     

    Verdict – The magistrates of the High Court of Cassation and Justice in Bucharest on Friday rejected the appeals filed by the independent candidate Călin Georgescu in the case of the cancelation of last year’s presidential election. He had challenged a decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal delivered at the end of December 2024, by which the judges rejected Georgescu’s request to cancel the three decisions of the Central Electoral Bureau, adopted after the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) decided to cancel the presidential election. Previously, Călin Georgescu, considered pro-Russian, declared that he challenged the decision of the CCR at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). He asks the ECHR to compel the Romanian state to organize the second round of the presidential election in which he and Elena Lasconi (USR) qualified. Based on documents declassified by the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT), CCR judges cited significant irregularities that affected the integrity of the electoral process and manipulated votes through social networks. Documents from the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE), the Interior Ministry (MAI) and the Special Telecommunications Service (STS) showed that Călin Georgescu would have benefited from the support of state and non-state actors to win. After the decision of the CCR, the Government established that the first round of the Romanian presidential election will be on May 4, and the second round on May 18. Romanians in the diaspora still have three days to vote, but on the last day, Sunday, the polling stations will close at 9 p.m., Romanian time, regardless of the local time zone.

     

    Tennis – The Romanian tennis player Jaqueline Cristian (83 WTA) was defeated by the German Eva Lys (128 WTA) score 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, on Saturday, in Melbourne, in the third round of the Australian Open tournament. The Romanian reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. In the doubles, the Romanians Gabriela Ruse and Jaqueline Cristian, in different pairs, qualified for the second round, after the victories obtained, on Friday, in Melbourne. Gabriela Ruse and the Ukrainian Marta Kostiuk defeated the Australian pair Destanee Aiuava and Maddison Inglis 6-4, 7-6, and in the second round they will have strong opponents, Elise Mertens (Belgium) and Ellen Perez (Australia), seeded 6th. Jaqueline Cristian and the Italian Camilla Rosatello defeated the pair Cristina Bucşa (Spain)/Iana Sizikova (Russia) 6-2, 6-7, 6-4. The next opponents for Cristian and Rosatello will be Leylah Fernandez (Canada) and Nadia Kicenok (Ukraine), 16th seeds.

     

    Fair – Romania will participate in the largest organic products fair in the world, BioFach 2025, which will take place in Nuremberg (Germany), between February 11-14, announced the Bio-Romania Association, supported by the Romanian Government through the Romanian Agency for Investments and Foreign Trade. According to the Association, Romania has been present for 20 years at this event dedicated to agriculture and ecological products. Since 1990, BioFach has become the essential meeting point for organic food producers worldwide, offering networking opportunities and a place where ideas can be exchanged between all actors in the value chain of the organic sector.

     

    US – The inauguration ceremony of the US President-Elect, Donald Trump, will be moved indoors, as the weather forecast for Monday in Washington indicates very low temperatures, the American press announces. Therefore, the swearing-in ceremony, which was supposed to take place on the steps of the Capitol, will take place inside the Capitol Rotunda, just as it was done at the ceremony for the second term of the former president Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump has told his supporters that they will be able to see the inauguration ceremony on screens located inside the Capital One Arena, a sports arena in Washington with a capacity of 20,000 people. The transition team announced that, on Monday, Donald Trump would again use his own Bible, and also the “Lincoln Bible”, a copy known by this name because it was the holy book used by the 16th president of the USA , Abraham Lincoln. The Republican leader also used these two copies when taking the oath for his first mandate, in 2017, the EFE agency reports. (LS)

     

  • January 17, 2025

    January 17, 2025

     

    RUSSIA The Romanian ministry of foreign affairs firmly condemns the Russian forces’ irresponsible attacks that violate all the norms of international law, and emphasises that Russia’s illegal and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine generates risks for the entire region. The statement was made as the monitoring and surveillance systems of Romania’s defence ministry Friday morning noted violations of Romanian airspace, in Tulcea county, after Russian forces resumed their drone attacks on civilian targets and port infrastructure in Ukraine. ‘Respect for sovereignty, security and peace are obligations that the Russian Federation violates systematically and without provocation. The persistent aggressive actions, the illegal occupation of some of the neighboring territories and the illegal full-scale war that Russia has been waging for almost 3 years against a sovereign neighbor are a persistent and serious threat not only to Ukraine but to the entire Black Sea region and NATO’s eastern flank,’ the foreign ministry says. The foreign ministry and the defence ministry also mention that they have been informing NATO in real time about the situations caused by these attacks, and remain in permanent contact with it.

     

    PROTESTS Several thousand police officers and employees from defence, public order and national security institutions, as well as reserve officers from all over Romania take part in a protest in Bucharest today. They are unhappy with a government order that has significantly reduced their incomes. The act scraps overtime pay and payments for days worked on weekends or public holidays. The protesters argue that the income of operational police officers will be severely affected, with decreases ranging between EUR 200 and 2,000. The participants are marching towards the ministry of finance, the ministry of justice, the labour ministry, and the interior ministry, with the government headquarters as their final destination.

     

    ELECTIONS The first round of the presidential elections in Romania will take place on May 4, and the second round on May 18, the government has decided. Stricter rules have also been set for the election campaign, especially regulating online campaigns. Failure to comply with them may entail fines for major online platforms of up to 5% of their turnover. Romanians in the diaspora will still have 3 days to vote, but on the last day, that is, on Sunday, polling stations will close at 9:00 p.m. Romanian time, regardless of the local time zone. The new provisions have been criticised by several NGOs. The presidential election was cancelled at the end of last year by the Constitutional Court, on grounds that the election process had been flawed.

     

    FLU Flu vaccination remains the easiest, safest and most effective protection method against seasonal diseases, Romanian doctors reiterate amid increases in the number of respiratory infections. Specialists emphasise that as the percentage of the vaccinated population increased, flu viruses spread less in communities decreases. A National Institute for Public Health report shows that the number of people diagnosed with respiratory infections has doubled, with almost 91,000 cases reported in the last week. There are almost 600 patients diagnosed with clinical flu and over 200 for whom lab tests have confirmed infection with the flu virus, most of them in Bucharest, Cluj, Braşov, Constanţa, Alba and Galaţi. Five more people have died from the flu, bringing the death toll since the beginning of the season up to 9.

     

    MIDDLE EAST Israel and Hamas have officially signed a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in Gaza, after overcoming last-minute disputes. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the Security Cabinet and the government are meeting later today to ratify the document. The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he expects the implementation of the agreement to begin on Sunday as planned, with the release of the first 3 Israeli hostages. At least one of the far-right Israeli ministers who oppose the agreement has resigned. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Israel, political life in Israel is shaping up to be troubled, with a great potential for surprises and even changes.

     

    TENNIS The Romanian tennis players Gabriela Ruse and Jaqueline Cristian, in separate pairs, qualified for the second round of the women’s doubles event at the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, after winning their respective matches on Friday in Melbourne. Ruse and Ukraine’s Marta Kostiuk won against the Australians Destanee Aiuava and Maddison Inglis 6-4, 7-6 (7/2), and in the second round they will face strong opponents in Elise Mertens (Belgium) and Ellen Perez (Australia), seeded 6th. Jaqueline Cristian and her Italian partner Camilla Rosatello defeated Cristina Bucşa (Spain) / Iana Sizikova (Russia) 6-2, 6-7 (2/7), 6-4. Cristian and Rosatello will next face Leylah Fernandez (Canada) and Nadia Kicenok (Ukraine), seeded 16th. In another first-round match in the women’s doubles, Monica Niculescu and Sofia Kenin (US) were defeated by Miyu Kato (Japan) / Renata Zarazua (Mexico), 6-4, 6-4. In the men’s doubles, the Romanian-Argentine pair Victor Cornea / Mariano Navone were defeated in the second round by Germany’s Kevin Krawietz / Tim Puetz, 4-6, 6-1. (AMP)

  • January 15, 2025 UPDATE

    January 15, 2025 UPDATE

    CULTURE DAY In Romania, January 15 was National Culture Day, marking the birth date of the national poet Mihai Eminescu. This year was all the more special as it celebrated the 175th anniversary of the birth of the greatest Romanian poet of all times. Many events took place in Bucharest and throughout the country, including conferences, debates, concerts and exhibitions, and entry to many museums was free. The Bucharest National Opera celebrated National Culture Day on Wednesday evening with a gala performance celebrating Romanian culture as expressed in faith, art and identity. The “Luceafărul” exhibition was opened at the Bruckenthal National Museum in Sibiu, the Lyric Theatre in Iași scheduled a special performance, while an exhibition called “Past, Present and Future” was opened at the Corvin Castle. On National Culture Day, the Radio Romania Culture channel invited a teenager from Vâlcea (south) to the theatre for the first time. With this symbolic gesture, the only national radio station dedicated exclusively to the arts calls on people and institutions to facilitate access to culture for their peers.

     

    PROTEST The ‘CulturMedia’ National Federation of Culture and Press Trade Unions protested on Wednesday, on National Culture Day, wearing white armbands, to warn against the underfunding of the culture sector and the salary inequities to which employees of museums, libraries and cultural centers are subjected. The Federation demands that 1% of GDP be earmarked for Culture, that the salaries of museum and public library employees be brought in line with the education payment scheme, the elimination of the huge salary disparities between employees of performing arts institutions and employees of public museums and libraries, bonuses for work carried out on weekends and public holidays, as well as the payment of overtime. The unionists also demand that hiring be resumed, to counter the chronic personnel shortage in cultural institutions.

     

    BUDGET The VAT will not be increased, Romania’s PM Marcel Ciolacu promised, after talks on the 2025 state budget bill with the finance minister, Tánczos Barna, and with the head of the national tax administration agency, ANAF. Ciolacu added the tax reform is expected to help bring down the inflation rate and increase people’s spending power. PM Marcel Ciolacu reiterated that the 2025 state budget bill will be passed by the government by the end of this month and will subsequently be sent to Parliament, for review and endorsement in the first week of the legislative session due to begin in February. He also said that the 7% deficit target agreed with the European Commission will be maintained, as will the target of 7% of GDP for investments. The PM also said that last year state revenues went up by 27%, and this year a roughly 30% increase is expected. The main indicators for the 2025 budget will be presented at Thursday’s government meeting. Also on Thursday, the Cabinet is to approve the presidential election timetable.

     

    INTERESTS The Board of Directors of the National Bank of Romania has decided to keep the key interest rate at 6.5% per annum. Also, the lending facility interest rate stays at 7.50% per annum, the deposit facility interest rate at 5.50% per annum, and the minimum reserve requirements for banks’ national and foreign currency liabilities will also stay unchanged. Last year, the central bank lowered the key interest rate twice, in July, from 7% per annum to 6.75% per annum, and in August to 6.5% per annum. The key interest rate had not been changed since January 2023. According to the bank, the annual inflation rate rose in the last three months of 2024 more than expected, to 5.14% in December, from 4.62% in September. The National Bank estimates the inflation rate will decrease in the first quarter of 2025, but slower ​​than previously expected. Significant uncertainties and risks related to inflation arise from the future tax and revenue policy, given the implementation of the set of tax and budget related measures recently approved by the Government for the purpose of fiscal consolidation, but also from the situation on the labor market and the wage dynamics in the economy. At the same time, significant uncertainties continue to be linked to the evolution of energy and food prices, as well as to future developments in the crude oil market, amid geopolitical tensions, central bank experts argue.

     

    ELECTION The MP Emanuel Ungureanu (Save Romania Union) has filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor General’s Office against Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and the head of the Timiş County Council, Alfred Simonis. Ungureanu said the complaint was related to the the two officials’ TikTok chat about redirecting votes from the Social Democratic party to the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians candidate George Simion in last year’s presidential elections. He accused Ciolacu and Simonis of corrupting voters and misusing influence and authority to obtain undue benefits, as well as preventing the exercise of electoral rights. Emanuel Ungureanu called on prosecutors to question the heads of Social Democratic Party branches and to conduct computer searches to see if the call to direct votes to George Simion and Călin Georgescu circulated on the Social Democrats’ WhatsApp groups. (AMP)

  • Protests and preparations for the presidential election

    Protests and preparations for the presidential election

    The ruling coalition in Romania made up of the PSD-PNL-UDMR last week decided that the presidential election be held on May 4th and 18th. The Executive in Bucharest is now preparing the documents needed for making these dates official. The country’s Social-Democratic Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, says there is obviously a huge public expectation related to the date of the presidential election. However, the people in the street have conveyed a more radical message: the Constitutional Court cancelled the first round of voting in an unjustified manner and should now re-think the ruling it made on December 6th.

    Such a review appeal was made by the lawyers of the independent candidate, Călin Georgescu, a pro-Russia extremist, who unexpectedly emerged as winner of the first presidential round held on November 24th. The moment of the appeal registration was accompanied by an unauthorized protest staged by thousands of Georgescu’s supporters.

    The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), the flagship party of the sovereignist trio in the Romanian Parliament, staged a large-scale protest in Bucharest, during which people from all over the country called for the resumption of the second round of the presidential election and the sacking of president Klaus Iohannis.

    ‘The Meeting for Democracy’, as it was titled, also included a march between the government and presidential buildings.

    “In a normal Romania, at the end of this day, the illegal resident of the Cotroceni Palace, Klaus Werner Iohannis, will announce his resignation and we’ll rejoin the institutional framework so that we may be able to observe the will of the Romanian people”, the AUR leader, George Simion says. According to him, the protests will continue until all the protesters’ claims are met, and thousands of people will take to the streets on January 24th, when we celebrate the Union of the Romanian Principalities. The USR president, Elena Lasconi, who also qualified for the presidential race together with Georgescu, says that she understands the Romanians who took to the streets in order to point out to the Constitutional Court, quote, ‘the fact that it used its power discriminately’. She says the solution is neither in the street, nor on social networks, though.

    In her opinion, it would be normal for president Iohannis to step down and let the head of the Senate take over the country’s leadership as an interim.

    We recall the CCR cancelled the presidential election in November-December last year, after the country’s Higher Defence Council had published a report on foreign interferences in the election process that favoured Georgescu and the alleged illegal funding of his campaign.

    However, the facts, on which the Court based its unprecedented ruling, have not been confirmed by legal investigations yet, which casts a question mark upon its decision. As a result Klaus Iohannis is still Romania’s president, although he finished its second and last mandate on December 21.

    (bill)

     

  • December 30, 2024 UPDATE

    December 30, 2024 UPDATE

    GOVERNMENT On Monday, during its last meeting this year, the government of Romania passed an emergency order cutting down public sector spending in 2025. The bill agreed on by the leaders of the ruling coalition (comprising the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania) includes measures such as suspending public sector employment or freezing pensions and salaries of public sector employees at the 2024 level. In addition, overtime will no longer be paid and no bonuses or premiums will be granted. The government claims that these measures are aimed at reducing public spending by almost EUR 4 billion, i.e. 1% of GDP. To this end, the Cabinet has set up a department made up of experts working pro bono to increase the efficiency of the government’s work. The state budget law for next year will be passed by the government in January and sent to Parliament for endorsement in a special session.

     

    PROTESTS Penitentiary police Monday picketed the Government headquarters in Bucharest, protesting the measures to reduce public expenses. They claim they would lose up to 30% of their salaries because of the enforcement of the new provisions. Also on Monday, several trade union and employer organisations in Romania issued statements criticising the measures designed to cut expenditure in the public system. Trade unions in the education sector are against the salary freeze, while the largest trade union federation in public administration and social assistance, Columna, complains that the order had been drafted without social dialogue. The energy sector employers federation also cites the lack of consultations, criticising the introduction of a tax on special constructions. The Romalimenta Employers’ Federation warns that the food industry is receiving another blow with the cancellation of tax facilities benefitting employees in the sector. In turn, representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises say that lowering the tax threshold for SMEs and increasing the tax on dividend will have catastrophic effects for Romanian entrepreneurs. The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania also voiced concerns about the fiscal measures adopted by the Government, which, it believes, put the business environment in a difficult situation and further affect economic predictability and investor confidence.

     

    PRICE HIKES Romanians will be paying more for petrol and diesel as of January 1, due to a 6% rise in the fuel excises, according to a document released recently by the Finance Ministry. A litre of petrol will cost 3 Eurocents more, and diesel will have almost the same price. Excises on alcohol beverages will also grow by 4.4% as of January 1. Local taxes and duties will be adjusted to the inflation rate, but the decision in this respect is going to be made by city halls. The Bucharest General Council has decided to raise these taxes by 10.4%.

     

    UNEMPLOYMENT The unemployment rate in Romania was 3.28% at the end of November 2024, with the total number of unemployed people reaching 261,511, the National Employment Agency announced. At the end of October, the national unemployment rate was 3.20%. Unemployment in rural areas is almost 3 times higher than in cities. The 40-49 age bracket and men have the highest share among the unemployed. Middle school graduates account for 33.56% of the total registered number of unemployed people, while those with university degrees only account for 4.56%.

     

    BORDERS The Romanian Border Police is ready to join the Schengen area with land borders as of January 1, 2025, when border controls will be eliminated at 40 road, rail and port checkpoints. According to a statement issued by the Border Police General Inspectorate, as of next year travelling to and from other Schengen member states will be similar to a trip within the country. However, people who intend to travel to the territory of another Schengen state must have a valid travel document, namely a passport or identity card, because Romanian border police will carry out random checks, the statement also reads.

     

    DIPLOMACY Romania’s foreign ministry Sunday night said that on December 18 the Romanian ambassador to NATO conveyed Romania’s disapproval over the distribution of a geographic atlas comprising maps featuring the so-called, ‘greater Hungary’. “The atlas is of an inflammatory nature with respect to the strategic partnership between Romania and Hungary and their capacity as NATO allies. The foreign ministry in Bucharest reiterates the view it has consistently conveyed to the Hungarian authorities, that any provoking statement and gesture is not likely to help consolidate the partnership relations between Romania and Hungary. The shared history must remain a subject for historians to study,” Bucharest says. Dismantled at the end of World War I, the so-called ‘greater Hungary’ included territories occupied by Budapest, which today belong to Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia. (AMP)

  • November 5, 2024

    November 5, 2024

     

    EUROPEAN COMMISSION Roxana Mînzatu, Romania’s nominee for European Commissioner for People, Skills and Preparedness is interviewed today by Parliament’s specialist committees. She is one of the six vice-presidents of the European Commission, headed by Ursula von der Layen. Mînzatu aims to make the teaching career more attractive, given that at least 24 EU member states are facing a shortage of teachers, and at the same time to improve the Erasmus+ programme, viewed as far too expensive by many Romanian students. On November 12, next week, Roxana Mînzatu will be heard in the specialist committees of the European Parliament.

     

    DEFENCE “The Romanian and French military are fully engaged in ensuring security and stability in the Black Sea region,” the Romanian defence minister Angel Tîlvăr said in Paris, at a meeting with his French counterpart, Sebastien Lecornu. The agenda included current topics related to bilateral cooperation, with an emphasis on strategic defence priorities, in the complex security context of the Black Sea region and of the Russian Federation’s continuing war of aggression in Romania’s neighbor, Ukraine. The 2 officials also discussed aspects related to the collaboration between the two states within NATO, the European Union and bilaterally. Minister Tîlvăr was among the Romanian officials accompanying PM Marcel Ciolacu, who met with his counterpart Michel Barnier on Monday.

     

    FINANCE The Romanian finance minister, Marcel Boloş, took part  in Brussels today in the meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council, where they discussed VAT in the digital age, the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the annual reporting, EU statistics, international meetings and financing the climate transition. The Council will also pass two legislative acts in the field of insurance.

     

    FORUM Bucharest is hosting the Romania-Japan Energy Forum, an event that brings together companies and public institutions in the field of energy from both countries. The forum stepped up joint projects in the field of energy, in particular the development of new generation nuclear power, the expansion of renewable energy storage capacities, the production of green hydrogen and the implementation of carbon capture, use and storage technologies. As part of the forum, the Romanian energy ministry and the Japanese company Itochu Corporation signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of the Tarnița-Lăpuștești investment (central Romania), a project of strategic importance for balancing the energy system in Romania in the context of increasing the share of energy from renewable sources. Relations between Romania and Japan were raised to the strategic partnership level on March 7, 2023.

     

    ELECTION DAY US citizens today elect their president. Running for office are vice-president Kamala Harris, supported by the Democratic Party, and the former White House leader Donald Trump, the candidate of the Republican Party. Both finished their campaign in Pennsylvania, a state that could decide who the next president will be. Over 80 million voters have already cast their early vote by mail, a record number that shows interest in this election, seen by many as critical for the future of American democracy. A staggering USD 2.6 bln has been spent in the last eight months to convince the voters. Opinion polls show that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are practically tied.

     

    GEORGIA Thousands of Georgians gathered in the centre of the capital city Tbilisi on Monday evening, to protest the results of the October 26 legislative elections, won by the ruling party, Georgian Dream, and challenged by the opposition, whose supporters are now announcing protests will continue until the election is repeated. The newly elected opposition MPs refused to enter Parliament, and described the election as illegitimate, while Western observers speak of irregularities during the campaign and the vote. The opposition parties, supported by the pro-Western president Salome Zourabichvili, claim that there have been frauds and demand an international investigation or repeat elections under ‘international administration’. Both ideas are rejected by the government. Attending the protest, Salome Zourabichvili told the demonstrators that the Republic of Moldova won, referring to the victory of her pro-European counterpart Maia Sandu, and that “Georgia must not give up either”. Russia dismissed the Georgian opposition’s accusations of meddling in the election process, and the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation last Wednesday to investigate election fraud allegations. (AMP)

  • Drone alerts on the Eastern Flank

    Drone alerts on the Eastern Flank

    The terror campaign the Russian army is carrying out in Ukraine continued last weekend unabated. According to the Ukrainian Air Forces, Russia launched 67 long-range drones in a large-scale night attack against 11 Ukrainian regions. On their way to targets, these drones are also violating the air space of the countries neighboring Ukraine, as it happened again last nights. One of these Russian drones has crashed close to the town of Rezekne in eastern Latvia, 50 kilometers close to the borders of this NATO country with Belarus and Russia.

    Land troops and air surveillance devices belonging to Romania’s Ministry of National Defence have been deployed to conduct search operations in the regions close to Periprava, in Tulcea County, south-eastern Romania, where parts of the drones the Russians used to bomb Ukraine’s ports on the Danube have allegedly crashed.

    The Bucharest administration has announced that a Russian drone on Saturday night entered Romania’s airspace on its way to Ukrainian targets. In response two F-16 fighters had been ordered to take off to monitor the situation and the General Inspectorate for Emergency situations had issued heads-up in the counties of Tulcea and Constanta, in Romania’s south-east, against the risk of falling debris.

    On Sunday morning the Romanian Ministry of Defence briefed the allied structures over the situation created and conveyed a firm message of condemning these attacks mounted by the Russian Federation against elements of Ukrainian civil infrastructure, which the Romanian side considers ‘unjustified and in severe contradiction with international law’.

    A protest message has also been issued by the Romanian Foreign Ministry. The diplomacy in Bucharest said the radars of Romania’s armed forces had identified a drone, which violated the country’s airspace on its way to an Ukrainian target, and called for the cessation of Russia’s irresponsible escalation of the security situation.

    Romania’s Foreign Ministry has also called for the observance of the rule of law including in the case involving the inviolability of Romania’s airspace and has reiterated its vehement condemnation of these illegal attacks. Since the onset of the Russian invasion of that country in February 2022, Russian troops have launched thousands of missiles and long-range drones against various military and civil objectives causing numerous victims against the population. Following these attacks, a series of Russian drones fell on the Romanian territory mostly in unpopulated areas. In order to fight off such attacks, Romania has joined the countries that are donating to Ukraine some of their surface-to-air Patriot missiles.

    (bill)

  • Summertime protests

    Summertime protests

    Accountants, economists and entrepreneurs on Monday took to the streets of Bucharest to draw attention to what they call ‘fiscal terror’, and measures endorsed without public talks but with a major impact upon the entire society.

    The event called “A Chaos-free Fiscal Administration” was attended by people from all over Romania who braved the extremely hot temperatures to voice their discontent. Protesters took to Victoriei Square in downtown Bucharest, close to the government building, and their delegation held talks with the authorities. They showed their disapproval towards the authorities’ latest decisions on digitizing the fiscal administration. They denounced the lack of transparency and the fact that the introduction of several mechanisms such as the e-invoice, e-VAT or e-transport, would rather increase bureaucracy as there is a larger number of forms to fill in and a lot of redundant information. Furthermore, the accountants complained that the technical instruments made available by the Finance Ministry do not function properly.

    The protesters also called for legislative predictability with a clear schedule for fiscal amendments, made public at least six months before implementation.

    In turn, authorities say the new measures are meant to combat tax evasion. At the same time, Finance Minister, Marcel Bolos, pledged to step up talks with those directly affected.

    A government’s decision allowing the police to suspend licenses of drivers who have refused to take an anti-doping test before getting the results of medical investigations has triggered discontent among drivers in Romania.

    According to the organizers, ”Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and Interior Minister, Cătălin Predoiu, are jeopardizing the lives and careers of thousands of innocent drivers who run the risk of getting criminal files and losing their jobs because of false positive tests’.

    Following protests, this government ordinance aimed at changing the Traffic Code in Romania, would be amended in the first session of the Executive. The Prime Minister has called on the Interior Minister to come up with new measures so that drivers should not be sanctioned on the basis of false positive drug tests on one hand and on the other hand the new measures should not compromise the fight against the use of banned substances.

    The field drug-test kits used by the Romanian police are error-prone and known to have produced false-positive errors in many situations. Forensic experts have explained that a series of food or medical substances can influence the aforementioned tests. One suchlike substance is codeine, which is normally used in the treatment of coughing.

    So, the Romanian authorities are in need of new, more effective drug-test kits, able to confirm a test in a couple of days. At present a test needs a couple of months to confirm and so need drivers to get back their suspended licenses.

    (bill)

  • May 23, 2024 UPDATE

    May 23, 2024 UPDATE

    Protests – Trade unionists from several public institutions and governmental organizations protested on Thursday in front of the headquarters of the Romanian Government. They complained about wage inequities and discrimination in their fields of activity. These are employees from Environmental Protection domain, the Trade Register, the National Archives, the National Council for Combating Discrimination, as well as from the Sports and Youth domains. They were joined by a few employees from the government’s working apparatus, who started a spontaneous protest, stopping their  activity. In the meantime, the Government adopted an emergency ordinance that provides for 10% salary increases, in two installments, and the covering of costs for eyeglasses for several categories of employees in institutions under its authority, ministries or under the control of Parliament, including for some of those who were at the rally on Thursday. However, the offered increase displeases some of the protesters, who consider it too small. The Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu told them that for the institutions in question, more flexible staff structure solutions can be found, and from the savings made, the salaries of those who deserve it can be increased.

     

    Salaries – The minimum gross salary in Romania will increase to 3,700 lei (almost 744 Euros) from July 1, and the facility granted to employers regarding the 200 lei (about 40 Euros) exempted from taxes will be kept until the end of the year. The decision was announced by Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in a Facebook post, after the conclusion of the Tripartite Council: Government – employers – unions. The Prime Minister said that in this way, Romania is on the right track for the implementation of the European minimum wage.

     

    Exhibition – The regional military equipment exhibition “Black Sea Defense and Aerospace” 2024 takes place, until Friday, in Bucharest. The event is attended by over 400 global manufacturers of military equipment and technology from approximately 30 NATO member states or partners. Experts from all over the world will see the latest military equipment and weaponry, the main attraction of the exhibition being the fifth generation F-35 multi-role aircraft, which the US Air Force brought to an exhibition in Europe for the first time. Marcel Ciolacu, who participated in the opening of the exhibition, stated that, in the context of the bloody conflict in Ukraine, the revitalization of the national defense industry has become a priority of the Romanian government.

     

    Strategy – The National Youth Strategy 2024 – 2027 was approved on Thursday by the Romanian Government. Starting from the results of an academic research, the strategy addresses various areas that can influence the quality of life of young people. This aims to increase the number of projects addressed to young people in order to increase access to education, culture and to develop the entrepreneurial spirit, said the spokesperson for the Executive, Mihai Constantin. He pointed out that, in the implementation of the strategy, several institutions from the fields of Education, Culture and entrepreneurship will be involved.

     

    Forum – Romania openly supports the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine in their European aspirations and the progress of these two countries on the path of reforms is visible, but ‘this road is not easy at all, the speaker of the Senate, Nicolae Ciucă, said Thursday in Bucharest in the framework of the “Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum”. He mentioned that the two countries must work on several clear lines of action, so as to integrate into the EU. Officials, military diplomats and analysts from Romania, the United States and other NATO and EU countries gathered in Bucharest for this important security, defense and foreign policy event. The “Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum”, now in its eighth edition, debates topics related to developments in the Black Sea region, in the context of the war in Ukraine. George Scutaru, general director and founding member of the New Strategy Center Romania, organizer of the event, said that Romania, located on the border with a war zone, must invest in defense capabilities and adapt its legislation to the current situation. Among others, the well-known economist Nouriel Roubini, the former commander of the NATO Forces in Europe, General Phillip Breedlove, or the reserve general David Petraues, the former head of the CIA, participate in the forum in Bucharest.

     

    Film – The feature film “NASTY”, directed by the Romanians Cristian Pascariu, Tudor D. Popescu and Tudor Giurgiu, was presented, on Thursday, in the “Special Screenings” Section of the Official Program of the Cannes International Film Festival. The screening of the film ended with a Q&A session in the presence of the three directors. The documentary film NASTY offers the public a captivating foray into the life of the legendary Ilie Năstase, the first rebel in the history of tennis. Ilie Năstase dominated the Romanian and world tennis scene in the 1970s. In addition to pure talent, he stood out through an electrifying style of play, and his eccentric personality and volcanic, often controversial temperament brought him special fame. The Cannes Film Festival ends on Saturday. (LS)