Radio România Internațional

Tag: Ukrainian education law

  • October 13, 2017 (update)

    October 13, 2017 (update)

    GOVERNMENT RESHUFFLE – On Thursday,
    three Romanian ministers announced their resignation during the meeting of the
    National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party, the main party in
    the ruling coalition in Romania. The three are the Deputy Prime Minister and
    Regional Development Minister Sevil Shhaideh, the Minister Delegate for
    European Funds Rovana Plumb and the Transport Minister Razvan Cuc. The
    executive committee will convene again on Friday, to discuss potential
    replacements. Prime Minister Mihai Tudose, the one who promoted the idea of a
    government reshuffle, has held talks over the past days with both president
    Klaus Iohannis and the Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea. Tudose has stated
    that the targeted ministers are those with legal problems and those who have not
    been efficient. Both Shhaideh and Plumb are being prosecuted for corruption
    offences. The minister in charge with liaising with Parliament, Viorel Ilie,
    member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania, the junior partner
    in the ruling coalition, is in a similar situation. Party representatives
    announced on Thursday that the party was not interested in replacing him.






    PACE – On Thursday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the
    Council of Europe adopted a resolution which reads that Ukraine was wrong in
    passing the new Education Law and will therefore have to implement the
    recommendations that are to be formulated by the Venice Commission. The
    statement was made by Korodi Attila, member of the Romanian Delegation to the
    European body. He has also stated that Ukraine must observe the European
    standards, in particular the European Charter for Regional or Minority
    Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National
    Minorities. The reason for the debate held at the Parliamentary Assembly,
    proposed by the Romanian delegation with support from another five national
    delegations, was the new Education Law adopted in Ukraine, which drastically
    restricts access to mother tongue education for ethnic minorities. On
    Wednesday, the Ukrainian President Petro Poroskeno had promised that the Kiev
    authorities would introduce all the recommendations made by the Venice Commission
    into the law and would observe the European Charter for Regional or Minority
    Languages. Nearly half a million ethnic Romanians live in the neighbouring
    country, mainly in the Romanian territories annexed by the USSR in 1940,
    further to an ultimatum, and taken over by Ukraine as a successor state in
    1991.






    BREXIT – The European Council is the only place where
    Romania will present its stand on Brexit, said on Thursday the Minister
    Delegate for European Affairs Victor Negrescu. According to him, no Romanian
    official has presented a formal stand regarding the Brexit negotiations.
    Minister Negrescu also stated that the main goal of the Bucharest authorities
    with regard to these negotiations was to ensure the rights of the over 300,000
    Romanians living in the United Kingdom. The clarification was made against the
    background of the British daily The Times saying that Romania, France
    and Germany have called for the blocking of new negotiations chapters, until an
    agreement is reached on the rights of
    foreign citizens in Great Britain.




    AUTOMOTIVE– President
    Klaus Iohannis and PM Mihai Tudose took part on Thursday in the launch of the
    new Ford Ecosport model, at the Ford plant in Craiova, southern Romania. The
    head of state said that, by attending the event, he wanted to convey a strong
    message of support for the automotive industry in Romania, which is growing
    increasingly competitive and has a better and better image in the European
    market. Since it took over the plant in 2008, Ford has invested over one billion
    euros in the production unit in Romania. More than 2,800 people are employed by
    Ford Craiova. The biggest carmaker in Romania is Automobile Dacia, based in
    Pitesti, in the south, taken over by the French group Renault in 1999. Over
    13,500 people are working for this company, which has a turnover of over 4.3
    billion euros.






    SPAIN– Spain
    celebrated its National Day on Thursday, amid tensions between the separatist
    authorities of Catalonia and the central government in Madrid. PM Mariano Rajoy
    gave the regional Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont until Monday to give up
    plans to declare the region’s independence, otherwise Catalonia would see its
    local autonomy suspended. Rajoy accused the Catalan government of having
    generated one of the most difficult times in Spain’s democracy and of having
    staged a very dangerous attack against the Constitution, the unity of Spain,
    the Catalan state and, most importantly, against Spain’s people living
    together.






    MOLDOVA– The European
    Union announced it would not grant the Republic of Moldova the remaining 28
    million euros under the reform programme, intended for changes in the field of
    the judiciary. The Union believes the Government in Chisinau has failed to meet
    the conditions requested by Brussels. The EU delegation in Moldova mentions in
    a news release that the authorities in Moldova have shown poor commitment for
    reform, have not allotted enough funding and staff and, as a result, progress
    in terms of judicial reforms has been insufficient. Last week, PM Pavel Filip
    announced Moldova would no longer receive this year’s installment of the 100
    million euro aid programme provided by the EU. He admitted that the measure had
    been prompted by Chisinau’s decision to change the election system for the
    forthcoming parliamentary elections, in such a manner as to favour the major
    parties.







  • September 27, 2017

    September 27, 2017


    CORRUPTION – Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis has stated that the ministers who are being investigated in the so-called ‘Belina’ case, namely the Social Democrats Rovana Plumb and Sevil Shhaideh, should have resigned or should have been sacked. The head of state has criticized the ruling Social Democratic Party for its decision to support the two ministers, who four years ago allegedly transferred an island and an arm of the Danube from state property into the property of Teleorman County. The transfer was illegal. President Iohannis has also voiced worries over the planned changes in the judiciary laws, announced by the line minister Tudorel Toader. Harshly criticized by civil society and the media, Toader’s draft stipulates, among other things, that appointing the heads of the National Anti-corruption Directorate and of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism will no longer be the president’s prerogatives. Also, under the new law, Judiciary Inspection would be part of the Ministry of Justice, and the seniority threshold for the promotion of magistrates will be set higher. Early this year, Government’s attempt to amend, under an emergency decree, the criminal codes, triggered large-scale protests across the country and in the Diaspora. Hundreds of thousands of Romanians took to the streets, accusing the ruling party of trying to exempt from criminal liability top level politicians and decision-makers.



    MINORITY RIGHTS – The Romanian Education Minister Liviu Pop is in Kiev today to discuss with his Ukrainian counterpart Lilia Grinevici the negative effects of the new education law on the Romanian ethnic minority living in Ukraine. Also, according to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, Romania will inform the international community about the violation of the right of the Romanians living in Ukraine to study in their mother tongue. These reactions have come following the promulgation on Monday of a law that drastically confines education in minority languages. The approximately 500,000 Romanians in Ukraine form the second largest ethnic community in the country, after the Russian one. More on this after the news.



    TRADE UNION PROTEST – The Romanian health federation Solidaritatea Sanitara (Solidarity for Health) has today announced a string of protests planned for Thursday and Friday. The participants will picket the head offices of the Labour and Health Ministries, following the Government’s announced intention to change the legal provisions regarding the basic salary. According to trade unionists, the change would trigger massive drops in the incomes of most employees in the health-care sector, of up to 60%, as of January 1st 2018. In another move, hundreds of people protested across Romania on Tuesday, after authorities announced that the payment of social contributions would become employees’ responsibility. The protests were staged by Cartel Alfa, one of the largest trade union confederations in Romania, which has announced that protests will continue throughout the week. Trade unionists say that transferring the responsibility of paying social contributions from employers to employees will lead to a drop in the net incomes, the dismantling of the unemployment fund and lower contributions to the pension fund. On October 4th, trade unions will gather for a large protest in Bucharest.



    ARMY EQUIPMENT – By the end of the year, the Romanian Army will have purchased the first Patriot missile system, according to the Romanian Defense Minister Mihai Fifor. He has stated today that Romanian authorities are also discussing the purchase of another 36 F16 fighters from the US. Also today, the Secretary of State for Defense Policy Mircea Dusa and the Chief of Staff of the Romanian Air Forces, the Lieutenant – General Laurian Anastasof, are attending at the air base in Monte Real, Portugal, the ceremony for the reception of three F16 updated fighters. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Defense Ministry, by taking over the three fighters, the Romanian Air Forces have finalized stage I in the process of introducing in the fleet F16 Fighting Falcon multi-role fighters. The first six out of the 12 strong squadron that makes the object of the Romanian – Portuguese agreement became part of the Romanian Air Forces capabilities in September 2016, and the next three in December last year.



    COMPETITIVENESS – Romania ranks 68th in a classification of the most competitive countries in the world, 6 places lower than last year. In the same classification, Switzerland has maintained is leading position for the ninth year in a row, according to a report released by the World Economic Forum. Switzerland is followed in the rankings by the US, Singapore, the Netherlands and Germany. Ranking lower than Romania are countries such as Estonia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary. However, Romania is in a better position that Croatia and Greece. According to the report, the biggest issues facing Romania are taxation, bureaucracy, access to funding, a poorly educated labor force, corruption and the improper use of infrastructure.



    ROWING – Romania’s women’s eight has qualified straight into the finals of the World Rowing Championship in Sarasota – Bradenton, Florida, the US. In the men’s double sculls, Vlad-Dragos Aicoboae and Cosmin Pascari will compete in the semi-finals on Thursday. Ionela-Livia Lehaci and Gianina-Elena Beleaga have qualified for the doubles sculls semi-finals, the light category, to be held also on Thursday. Romania is taking part in the World championships with six crews.



    FOOTBALL – The only Romanian representative in the European football competitions, the vice-champion FCSB (formerly known as Steaua Bucharest) is playing on Thursday, away from home, against the Swiss from Lugano, in the Europa League. In the first Group G game, two weeks ago, FCSB won 3-0, in Bucharest, against Viktoria Plzen of the Czech Republic. The other game, Hapoel Beer Sheva of Israel defeated Lugano 2-1. In the rankings, FCSB comes 1st, with three points, followed by Hapoel, also with three points.