7 February, 2019

A round-up of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 07.02.2019, 13:46

2019
budget. Fresh talks on this year’s budget are held today within the ruling
coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals
and Democrats, at the finance ministry and with the Bucharest general and
sector mayors. At a meeting held on Wednesday and also attended by the Social Democrats’
leader Liviu Dragnea, mayors were promised 27% more funds than last year. The
mayors of the big cities say, however, that a budget increase is not enough if
the government transfers social protection expenses to the local
administration. The government is to adopt the budget bill on Friday, before
sending it to Parliament. This year’s budget is based on an economic growth
rate of 5.5%, a deficit level of 2.5% and an annual inflation rate of 2.8%.

Conference.
Romania has today become a regional model for combating terrorism and
xenophobia and for the education and measures to keep alive the memory of the
Holocaust. This statement was made today by prime minister Viorica Dancila at
the opening of a conference entitled The Fight against antisemitism:
a common approach to better protect Jewish communities in Europe – from policy
to actionhosted by Romania as holder of the
presidency of the Council of the European Union. Also today, the Romanian prime
minister is having talks in Brussels with the First Vice President of the
European Commission Frans Timmermans and the President of the European Council
Donald Tusk.

EU. Terrorism, police cooperation, the Schengen area and
migration are the main topics on the agenda of an informal meeting of interior
ministers from the EU member states that begins today in Bucharest. The
meeting, which is organised by the Romanian presidency of the Council of the EU
and is chaired by the Romanian interior minister Carmen Dan, is attended by the
Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris
Avramopoulos, the Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King, the EU Counter-Terrorism
Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, the chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
Claude Moraes, FRONTEX’s Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri and other EU
officials.

Nomination. President Klaus Iohannis
has again rejected the nomination of Lia Olguta Vasilescu, the Social
Democrats’ proposal for development minister. He has sent a letter to prime
minister Viorica Dancila informing her of his decision and detailing his
reasons. The president says Vasilescu does not have the necessary training and
experience for such complex areas as regional development and public
administration. The Social Democratic Party has said in response that Klaus
Iohannis would never have become the president of the country based on the
criteria on which he rejected Lia Olguta Vasilescu’s nomination. The party also
recalls that the president did sign before Vasilescu’s appointment as labour
minister, where she oversaw the new, complex, salary and pension laws. This is
the third time the president has rejected her nomination and is also expected
to announce his decision regarding the nomination of Mircea Draghici as
transport minister. The talks on the appointment of the two ministers began
last November, when prime minster Viorica Dancila reshuffled her government.

Court. The Constitutional Court of Romania says the
amendments to the criminal code made by the ruling Social Democratic Party and
the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats on the prevention, discovery and penalty
of corruption make corruption accepted and tolerated and pave the way for the
violation of fundamental rights and liberties, which is a threat to the rule of
law. The Constitutional Court has thus justified its decision to accept some of
the challenges submitted by the President’s Office, the High Court of Cassation
and Justice and the parliamentary opposition. The Court also says the scope of
the crime of influence peddling is restricted by making it conditional on
material gains and the actual intervention of the public servant, thus in
effect decriminalising acts of corruption. The same applies to abuse of office,
whose scope is also restricted.

Protests.
Officers, police and penitentiary agents and military in the reserve today
begin a series of two-day protests in Bucharest demanding better work
conditions, fairer salaries and an end to the discrimination of army
pensioners. The protests are staged outside the interior and justice ministries
and the Parliament Palace. Trade unions says the salaries of defence, public
order and national safety staff were frozen by government order, while army
pensions were cut by more than 30% following the elimination of certain
benefits. They also complain that budget funds to improve work conditions and
provide equipment and logistics have shrunk constantly.

Film festival. The
Romanian production Monsters directed by Marius Olteanu will be screened as
part of the 69th edition of the Berlin Film Festival which begins
today. The film, which is Romania’s only entry in Berlin this year, will have
its opening night on Saturday. It is competing with 16 other productions.
Monsters shows a young married couple over the course of one day. Last year,
Adina Pintilie’s feature film debut Touch Me Not won the Golden Bear trophy
in Berlin. The production has been hailed for challenging the borders between
fiction, documentary film and visual arts and its unconventional exploration of
intimacy.