Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian justice laws

  • February 7, 2018 UPDATE

    February 7, 2018 UPDATE

    Strasbourg — The European Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourová, on Wednesday reiterated, in the plenum of the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg, the European Commission’s appeal on Romania’s Parliament to start debates on the modifications of the justice laws in line with Brussels’ recommendations and to obtain a consensus. The European official said that the European Commission was ready to continue dialogue with the Romanian authorities and offer its support. She added that after 10 years of constant effort, Romania has one of the best judicial systems. The European Commissioner for Justice also recalled that in December 2017, in the latest Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification report, the EC expressed concern with the modifications to the justice laws and debates have extended ever since. The debate in Strasbourg regarding the rule of law and the reform of the judiciary in Romania was decided on January 18 by the EP following the modifications brought to the justice laws late last year by the governing coalition in Romania. The modifications were harshly criticized by the associations of magistrates, the opposition and the EU.



    CCR — The Constitutional Court of Romania on Wednesday postponed for March 6th making a decision related to the notification made by President Klaus Iohannis, which refers to the modifications brought to a law under which MPs, ministers, councilors/local officials, prefects and the county council presidents can also hold the position of individual trader. President Iohannis says that in this case the procedure for adopting the law was violated and that the Senate was supposed to be the decision-making body. He also added that by eliminating these incompatibility criteria, the integrity standards will be diminished and the rule of law will be weakened. According to the President, the respective law runs counter to the international integrity standards which Romania assumed, thus infringing Constitutional provisions.



    Brussels — The European Commission estimates that Romania’s economic growth will slow down, the growth rate dropping from 4.5% in 2018 to 4% in 2019, shows the 2018 Winter Economic Forecast published Wednesday by the community body. Estimates show that the rise in private consumption will not be very high this year because inflation impacts more the real available revenues and the salary increase will slow down. Nevertheless, private consumption will continue to be the main engine behind economic growth in 2018 and 2019. Investments are estimated to grow if supported by the implementation of projects funded from European money, say the European body representatives. The EC also estimates that inflation will increase following the higher pressure caused by demand, and the effects of tax cuts will not be seen. The inflation rate is estimated to reach 4.1% in 2018 and 3% in 2019. In another development, also on Wednesday, the Board of the National Bank of Romania decided to increase the monetary policy interest rate at 2.25% per year from 2%.



    German coalition deal — The Conservatives and Social-Democrats in Germany on Wednesday reached an agreement to form a coalition Government, four months after legislative elections were held in this country. The Christian-Democratic Union, its ally from Bavaria the Christian-Social Union and the Social-Democratic Party managed to agree on the distribution of ministries in the new cabinet. The parties also overcame divergences linked to the healthcare reform and tightening rules for short-term employment contracts. After a 20-hour round of talks, the German Social-Democrats, who ruled over 2013-2017 alongside the Conservatives, will keep the Labor, Social-Affairs, Justice, Finance and Foreign Affairs ministries. The Finance Ministry was previously held by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian-Democratic Union. (news translated and updated by Lacramioara Simion)

  • Constitutional Court to look at the justice laws

    Constitutional Court to look at the justice laws

    Plans to
    amend the justice laws have already sparked new street protests this year in
    Romania. The amendments, initiated by the leftist ruling coalition formed by
    the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, have
    been criticised by the right-wing opposition, civil society and some of the
    magistrates, who say they aim to place the judiciary under political control.
    Three pieces of legislation, on the status of magistrates, on judicial
    organisation, and on the functioning of the Supreme Council of Magistracy, were
    immediately challenged before the Constitutional Court by the National Liberal
    Party, the main opposition party, and the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

    Claimants say the three laws violate the Constitution and are confusing. On
    Tuesday, the Constitutional Court accepted some of the complaints having to do
    with the law on the status of magistrates and asked for a redefinition of the
    concepts of judicial error, bad faith and grave negligence that appear in
    the provisions on magistrates’ accountability. The president of the
    Constitutional Court Valer Dorneanu said the court postponed for the 13th
    of February a discussion of the complaints against the law on the functioning
    of the Supreme Council of Magistracy.

    Valer Dorneanu: The
    court has not admitted some of the complaints that were insufficiently
    motivated. It has admitted a series of complaints, including some against the
    section of the law dealing with the accountability of magistrates, and has
    requested a redefinition of the notions of ‘judicial error’, ‘bad faith’ and
    ‘grave negligence’.


    Valer Dorneanu
    also says the Court has admitted the complaints against the provisions dealing
    with the role of the president of the country in the appointment of chief
    prosecutors, complaints that seek to achieve a clearer division of roles
    between the president and the Constitutional Court. President Klaus Iohannis,
    who attended the Supreme Council of Magistracy’s first meeting this year, also
    criticised the way in which the new justice laws were passed. He was hoping at
    the time that the laws would be improved and that the Constitutional Court
    judges would analyse them with professionalism and objectivity.

    The amendments
    to the justice laws have also caused concern at the top of the European Union.
    A week ago, the European Commission voiced its concern about the recent
    developments in Romania and called on Parliament to reconsider the changes to
    the justice laws. According to the Commission, the independence of the judicial
    system and its ability to fight corruption efficiently are the cornerstones of
    a strong Romania within the European Union. (translated by Cristina Mateescu)

  • December 28, 2017 UPDATE

    December 28, 2017 UPDATE


    GOVERNMENT– On Thursday, the Romanian Government held its last session in 2017. At the meeting, the Cabinet decided that 7000 new foreign workers will join the labour force in Romania in 2018. The decision was made in order to prevent illegal work and also as a result of a request made by the General Immigration Inspectorate. Also, the government decided that students in the vocational education system will continue to benefit from scholarships. The measure is aimed at raising young peoples interest in vocational education. The funds will be ensured from the state budget.



    JUSTICE LAWS – The special parliament committee set up to amend the justice laws on Thursday submitted to the Foreign Ministry the bills changing the status of the magistrates, the judicial organization and the functioning of the Superior Council of Magistracy, for them to be presented to the ambassadors accredited to Bucharest. Last week, the embassies in Bucharest of several EU countries called on the parties involved in the reform of the Romanian justice system to avoid any action that would weaken the independence of the judiciary and the fight against corruption. In an open letter, the diplomatic missions of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands drew attention to the risk posed by the amendments brought to the justice laws. These changes have been contested by civil society, part of the magistracy and the opposition. Also, the three laws were challenged at the Constitutional Court right after their adoption.



    BUDGET– Romanias consolidated general budget went up to 1.21% of the GDP after the first 11 months of the year. Revenues from taxes and duties were smaller then personnel and social security expenditure. According to the Finance Ministry, by year-end, the budget deficit will be maintained within the limit of 3% of the GDP.



    SYRIA – Some 40,000 people, of whom 10 thousand civilians, have died in the Syrian war this year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced on Thursday. The total death toll includes 2100 children and 1500 women. According to the Observatory, 494,000 people have died since the start of the conflict in March 2011.



    ROMANIAN ACADEMY – The head of the Romanian Academy, Ionel-Valentin Vlad, who died on Sunday aged 74 was buried in Bucharest on Thursday. A synod of priests led by the Roman-Catholic Archbishop of Bucharest Ioan Robu officiated the funeral service. A commemoration event was also held on Wednesday, at the initiative of the Academys leadership and was attended by the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daniel. According to a communiqué of the Romanian Academy, Ionel-Valentin Vlad was a pioneer in several physics-related fields, and his death is a great loss for Romania. The Royal House of Romania has too appreciated the academicians civic spirit, professionalism and academic rigor. The death of the chairman of the Romanian Academy is a big loss for the Romanian people the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania has also stated.



    BANK HOLIDAY– The Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, the day when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, may become a public holiday in Romania. The proposal was submitted to the Senate at the initiative of 42 MPs from all political parties. Among the reasons in favor of this initiative is the fact that Good Friday is a bank holiday in 16 out of the 28 EU states. Romania only has 14 public holidays, as compared to other countries, which have 16 or more.



    HANDBALL-On the 29th and 30th of December, Romanias national mens handball team will participate in the Yellow Cup, a tournament hosted by the city of Winterthur, in Switzerland. On Friday, Romania will take on Russia and on Sunday, depending on the results of the first day, it will play against either Switzerland or Serbia. Back to the country, the Romanian team will resume training ahead of the Carpati Trophy, which starts on January 5th. Participating alongside Romania will be Portugal, Tunisia and Bahrain. Coached by the Spanish Xavi Pascual, the Romanian team is preparing for the first round of the 2019 World Championship preliminaries, to be held between January 11 and 13 in Bolzano, Italy.




  • November 29, 2017

    November 29, 2017


    JUSTICE – The special parliamentary committee in charge of drafting the new justice laws in Romania is supposed to present today the final report on the future status of judges and prosecutors. On Tuesday, the committee decided that the magistrates will be held accountable for their legal errors, disciplinarily and also in terms of civil and criminal liability. Once completed, the report will be submitted to the Chamber of Deputies for debate.



    MINIMUM SALARY – The Romanian Government is supposed to decide today the increase in the minimum gross salary from 1450 to 1900 lei, the equivalent of some 410 Euro. According to specialists, the measure would stimulate employment and discourage illegal work. Romania is currently faced with a serious shortage of workers, especially in construction, agriculture, IT and health-care. Maintaining the current level of penalty point under the totting up system is also on the agenda of the Executive. As the value of this point is calculated depending on the minimum salary, maintaining its current level has been proposed to prevent traffic fines from growing excessively.



    INVESTMENT – The European Commissioner Corina Cretu has approved two new investment projects in road and water infrastructure, worth some 252 million Euros. 76 million Euro from the European Regional Development Fund will be invested in works on the European road E 79, which will link Romania to Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece. Also, some 176 million Euro from the Cohesion Fund will be invested in water management and distribution infrastructure in urban areas in Vrancea County, in the east.



    DEFENSE – The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has hailed Romanias decision to allocate 2% of the GDP to defense. In a speech in Washington on the American – European relations, Tillerson recalled the request made by the US to all its NATO-member European allies to spend more on defense. Also, Tillerson reasserted the USs commitment to dealing with Russias aggression against its neighbors, and called on Europe to do more for their own security. He gave assurances that the US would not hesitate to activate art. 5 of the NATO Treaty, in case of aggression against a member state. Next week, Rex Tillerson will attend a NATO meeting in Brussels and an OSCE meeting in Vienna.



    MINI-VACATION – Thursday is the first day of a 4-day mini-vacation, occasioned by the celebration of Saint Andrew, Romanias patron saint, and Romanias National Day on December 1st. Romanians have chosen to spend this extended weekend in the country, mostly in resorts on Prahova Valley, in Bucovina, in the north and in spas. The average budget allocated for such trips is approximately 170 Euro per person. On the other hand, the Romanians who have chosen to go abroad will spend on average 320 Euro per person. On December 1st, Romanias National Day, the main event on the celebration agenda is the military parade in Bucharest, which will be attended by some 3500 military staff, fighter planes and military vehicles.



    CANADA – The Romanian Foreign Ministry has today recalled that, as of December 1st, Romanian citizens will be able to travel to Canada visa free, for periods of maximum 6 months, for tourist purposes. Those who intend to travel by plane will have to first get an Electronic Travel Authorization – eTA. The others will only have to have a valid passport. The Romanian Foreign Ministry hails the decision made by the Canadian authorities to liberalize the visa-regime for the Romanian citizens, the outcome of years of diplomatic cooperation, also with the participation of the European Commission.



    NORTH KOREA – North Korea has announced the successful testing of a new type of inter-continental missile, which can hit any part of the US territory. The test, carried out after a two-month break, has been condemned by the US, Japanese and South-Korean authorities, as well as by the European Union. The UN Security Council has called an emergency session to discuss new sanctions against Pyongyang.



    HANDBALL – As of December 1st, Germany will be hosting the World Womens Handball Championship. Romania is part of Group A, alongside France, Spain, Slovenia, Angola and Paraguay. On December 2nd, in their first match, the Romanian squad will take on the team of Paraguay. At the previous World Championship, in 2015, Romania won bronze. The Romanian team is the only team to have participated in all the 22 editions of the World Championship held so far. (translation by Mihaela Ignatescu)




  • November 28, 2017 UPDATE

    November 28, 2017 UPDATE


    DEFENSE – Romanias Higher Defense Council, which convened in Bucharest on Tuesday, decided to maintain in 2018 the 2% share of the GDP earmarked for defense, just like this year, according to a communiqué issued by the Presidential Administration. The other institutions in the field of national security will next year get similar budgets too. The Defense Council also decided to increase the number of soldiers, gendarmes and police staff who next year will take part in missions abroad. 1,775 soldiers, 286 more than this year, will be deployed abroad next year, mostly in Afghanistan. Also, 1,867 gendarmes and police staff will take part in foreign missions under the aegis of the EU, the OSCE, NATO and the UN. By taking part in such missions, the Romanian state gets actively involved in promoting regional and global stability and security and in combating international terrorism. Also at the meeting held on Tuesday, the report on the measures adopted by Romania to enforce the sanctions set at international level between October 2016 and September 2017 was analysed and approved.



    JUSTICE – The US should trust Romanias Parliament, whose aim is to strengthen the independence of the judiciary and to eliminate any political interference in the functioning of the justice system, reads a press release communicated on Tuesday by the Senate Speaker Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Liviu Dragnea. The reaction came after the US Department of State published on Monday, on the institutions website, an official statement expressing concern over the fact that the Romanian Parliament intends to pass legislation which, according to the US officials, would affect the fight against corruption and weaken the independence of the Romanian judiciary. The US Department of State believes that these laws, set forth by the Ministry of Justice, are a threat to the progress that Romania has made in the past years, in a bid to build strong judicial institutions, protected against political intervention. In the same statement, the US Department of State calls on the Romanian parliament to reject those proposals that weaken the rule of law and endanger the fight against corruption. In the latest CVM report, made public on November 15th, the European Commission states that the global pace of reform has stayed flat in 2017, and the challenges that the independence of the Romanian judiciary is faced with is a major reason for concern. On Sunday, street protests were staged in Bucharest and other cities across Romania, but also abroad, against the changes brought to the justice laws and the fiscal code.



    CONTRACTS– Contracts were signed on Tuesday in Bucharest for the building of a new gas pipeline as part of the EU-backed BRUA project, which will link the natural gas networks in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. The deputy prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said that BRUA was a priority for the government, being a very important project for Romanias energy security and independence. On Romanian soil, the pipeline will cover 529 kilometers and its conveyance capacity to Bulgaria will be 1.5 billion cubic meters per year and 4.4 billion cubic meters per year to Hungary. The cost of the project is 547.4 million dollars, of which 179 million have been allocated by the EU in the form of a grant to Romania.



    AGRICULTURE – The Romanian agriculture minister Petre Daea on Tuesday signed an agreement with the European Investment Fund, which provides for the implementation of a financial lending instrument under the 2014-2020 National Rural Development Program. The agreement will facilitate access to funding for farmers and entrepreneurs in the rural areas, more funds and smaller interest rates. The money allocated under this program amounts to almost 94 million euros. The European Investment Fund is an international financial institution, part of the European Investment Bank Group, specializing in risk funding for SMEs. The European Investment Fund supports the EUs objectives by boosting innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship and the creation of jobs.



    CENTRAL BANK – Romanias socio-economic development is slower than its economic growth, said on Tuesday the First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Romania Florin Georgescu. According to him, the favorable macro-economic developments in the past years have been reflected only partially in an increase in peoples living standard and the countrys competitiveness. This has happened because the total capital in the economy is not at the right level and the business sector is faced with worrying structural vulnerabilities, the Central Bank First-Vice Governor also said.



    MIGRATION – Since the beginning of the year, at least 3000 migrants and refugees have died while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in order to get to Europe, the International Organization for Migration announced on Tuesday. A record figure was reported last year, when some 5000 people died in similar circumstances. According to the IOM, since the beginning of 2017, some 165,000 migrants and refugees have reached Europe by sea, of which 75% arrived in Italy.



    IMF – The International Monetary Fund has appointed the South-Korean Jaewoo Lee chief of mission for Romania and Bulgaria. On December 7th he will replace the Pakistani Reza Baqir. Before this appointment, Jaewoo Lee was head of the IMF mission for Sri Lanka. Currently, Romania has no agreement with the IMF, just regular consultations with its representatives.



    ENERGY CONFERENCE – Turkmenistans capital, Ashgabat, is hosting these days the 28th session of the Energy Charter Conference. The event has gathered leaders and representatives of the energy ministries of the member and observer states and of several regional and international organizations. In 2018, Romania will take over from Turkmenistan the presidency of the Energy Charter Conference, and Mihnea Constantinescu, Special Ambassador and Representative for Energy Security with the Foreign Affairs Ministry, will chair the conference. The Energy Charter was launched in Europe in 1990 as a political initiative. It is a platform of cooperation in the energy field, accepted by both the Eurasian states and the developed countries. In 1991, the European Energy Charter was signed in The Hague, and in 1994 the Energy Charter Treaty and the Energy Charter Protocol relating to energy efficiency and environmental issues were signed in Lisbon. Romania ratified the two documents in 1997. (translation by Mihaela Ignatescu)