A roundup of the week's main stories
The justice laws in the focus again
President Klaus Iohannis has challenged at the Constitutional Court the law on the status of judges and prosecutors, modified in Parliament, but has announced that he was forced to promulgate the law on judicial organization. In a news conference on Thursday, Iohannis called on Parliament to reintroduce the law into the parliamentary circuit as of next autumn and put it in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission. The President has criticized the lack of transparency of the ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in passing these laws and has said the outcome is worrying. Iohannis has also announced that he notified the Constitutional Court about the law on the status of magistrates.
Klaus Iohannis: "At the moment, as regards the law on judicial organization, I have unfortunately exhausted all constitutional ways to challenge it, and therefore I must promulgate it. But this does not mean that the road is closed for good. As regards Law 303/2004 that has been modified, regarding the status of judges and prosecutors, recently reexamined by Parliament, I will notify the Constitutional Court and firmly require that the Venice Commission's opinion be taken into account."
President Iohannis has pointed out that parliamentarians' loyalty should lie with the Romanian people, who still want to be part of the EU and not be shown as a negative example in Europe.
In response to that, representatives of the governing coalition have recalled that the justice laws have been amended in keeping with the rulings of the Constitutional Court and say that discussing them again in parliament would make no sense. The opposition, however, supports the request made by the head of state, namely for the Government to take into consideration the recommendations made by the Venice Commission.
On Monday, the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said Romania would send its official opinion to the Venice Commission before the latter's final report on the matter. The Venice Commission's recommendations are generally complied with by the member states. The Venice Commission has warned that the changes brought to the three justice laws will most likely undermine the independence of Romanian judges and prosecutors and weaken people's trust in the judiciary.
The setting up of the Sovereign Fund for Development and Investment, declared unconstitutional
The Sovereign Fund for Development and Investment will be set up through a Government decree, after the Constitutional Court ruled that this cannot be done by means of a law, the Romanian Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici has announced. On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court accepted the notification made by the Romanian President and the opposition parties, according to which the setting up of the Fund was not the prerogative of Parliament but of the Government, and therefore Parliament violated the principle of separation of powers.Under that law, 33 companies, in which the Romanian state is a shareholder, were to be included in the Sovereign Fund for Development and Investments, whose initial capital would amount to around 2 billion Euros.
Bucharest asks for EU support to combat the effects of African swine flu
Romania has requested funds from the European Union for the farmers affected by an outbreak of African swine fever in pigs. The request was made on Tuesday by the agriculture minister Petre Daea at a meeting in Brussels with his EU counterparts.The money would help cover the losses suffered by farmers following the culling of the sick pigs, the suspension of meat production and a drop in the price of pork in the areas affected. The aid will also cover costs related to cleaning and disinfection and the destruction of fodder, the Agriculture Ministry has announced, saying that Romania continues to take measures to contain the virus. At the moment, most outbreaks have been reported near the border with Ukraine.More than 300 cases have been reported so far.
The Romanian Government earmarks 1 billion Euros for the protection of the cultural heritage
The Bucharest Government has approved the financing of two extensive cultural projects worth a total of 12 million Euros. These projects are "E-culture: Romania's Digital Library" and "Historical monuments, strategic planning and optimized public policies", respectively. Under the E-culture project, 550,000 cultural resources will be included in Romania's digital library, and an IT platform for the digital library and a catalogue titled 'culturalia.ro' will be created. Also, some 200,000 cultural resources will be included in the europeana.eu portal. The second project's outcome will be a cultural heritage code, as well as a national strategy concerning the preservation of historical monuments. The projects will benefit from European non-reimbursable funding. Also on Thursday, the government adopted an emergency ordinance regarding the approval of an investment program in culture. One billion Euros have been allocated for its implementation, based on which multi-annual financing programmes can be signed. Its beneficiaries are the central public authorities, including the Ministry of Culture and National Identity, as well as its subordinated institutions, irrespective of the system of financing, as well as the local public administration. The money will be used for the purchase of historical monuments and classified tangible cultural assets, by exerting the state's right of preemption, the construction of cultural buildings to host cultural, information and educational activities, as well as for intervention, rehabilitation and/or modernization and restoration works.
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