1 April 2019, UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 01.04.2019, 19:45

Referendum. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis said on
Monday he would ask Parliament for a new consultation to expand the scope of
the referendum he has called on the 26th of May, on the same day as
the elections for the European Parliament, in order to render it more efficient
and stronger. The decision comes after talks held last week by the president
with civil society and representatives of judges and magistrates on the subject
of a referendum on justice. Iohannis has again criticised the governing Social
Democratic Party for issuing emergency orders and for wanting amnesty and
pardon for the corrupt. The president has again urged the government not to
issue emergency orders in the fields of justice and criminal policy before the
people have expressed their views.

Conference. Bucharest plays host to an inter-parliamentary conference
on the future of the EU rest. The event is organised by Parliament, as part of
Romania’s Presidency of the Council of the EU. Debates focus on the defence of
European values and citizens, the need for a reform of the economic model,
cohesion and Euro-Atlantic ties. The conference will end with the signing of a
joint declaration.

No-confidence vote. The simple motion against the
transport minister, initiated by the opposition parties National Liberal Party and
the People’s Movement Party was debated on Monday in the Chamber of Deputies
and will be put to vote on Wednesday. Its signatories call for the resignation
of minister Razvan Cuc and say that the governing coalition, made up of the
Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats pledged in
their governing programmes to build 350 km of motorway by 2020 but after almost
15 months in power, it has only inaugurated 58 km. The motion’s initiators also
denounce the lack of applications for EU funds for infrastructure, the poor
state of the country’s railway infrastructure and the problems of Tarom
national air company, which is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Poll. Citizens in the
south and south-east Europe are more worried about emigration than immigration,
according to an opinion poll conducted in 14 EU member states by the European Council on Foreign Relations and published on Monday by the
British daily The Guardian. The poll shows that in Spain, Italy, Greece,
Hungary and Romania, where the population either stagnates or has seen a sharp
drop, more people say they are worried about emigration than about immigration.
The Guardian writes that Romania has seen the most dramatic demographic
decline, its population dropping by almost 10% in the last decade because young
people in particular have left the country seeking work in Western Europe. In
the Nordic and Western countries, on the other hand, people worry much more
about immigration than emigration.

Unemployment. The
unemployment rate in the European Union stood at 6.5% in February, down 7.1%
compared with the same time last year, according to a report published on
Monday by the EU’s statistical office Eurostat. This is the lowest unemployment
level in the Union since Eurostat has been publishing monthly unemployment
reports, namely January 2000. Greece, Spain and Italy have the highest unemployment
rates, while the Czech Republic, Germany and Holland have the lowest. Romania
is under the EU average with an unemployment rate of 3.8% in February.