April 18, 2017

Employment rate for the aged population in Romania increased in 2016/ Romanian and Bulgarian workers in UK work more than 40 hours per week/ US President Donald Trump congratulates Turkish president on his victory

Newsroom, 18.04.2017, 14:02

GRECO report — In a report published on Tuesday, the Council of Europe anti-corruption body GRECO expresses concern about the use of emergency procedures to amend legislation in Romania instead of using proper parliamentary process. The report also shows that the Romanian authorities have implemented satisfactorily part of the recommendations made in the previous GRECO report on the criminalization of corruption and the transparency of political funding, but they still needs to take further steps to fully comply with the recommendations. The GRECO report also alerts the authorities to the need to be mindful of the country’s commitments regarding incriminations against corruption. Two recommendations remain not implemented and three recommendations have been partly implemented.

Statistics — In Romania the employment rate for the aged population increased last year by 0.2% as compared to 2015 up to 61.6%, and the number of people able to work stood at almost 9 million, show data published on Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics. Of them, as many as 8.5 million had a job and 530 thousand were unemployed. All in all, the unemployment rate stood at 5.9%, a lower figure as compared to the previous year when the reported unemployment rate was 6.8%. The highest unemployment rate, 20.6%, was registered in the 15 to 24 age category. The unemployment rate for people with higher education was 3.1%.

Alert and warning drill — An alert and warning drill will take place all across Romania as of Tuesday until Friday. During this period of time sirens will be tested alternatively between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. People will hear the alert signal made up of five different sounds, each lasting 16 seconds. The secretary of state with the Interior Ministry, Raed Arafat, has pointed out that this is the largest testing drill organized in the past years and that it is aimed at checking if the alert sirens are heard by the population in the areas covered by the alert and warning system. In Bucharest there are 400 sirens while in the rest of the territory there are 7,000 such alert systems. The systems are placed mainly in those areas with high technological or radioactive risk.

Workers in the UK — Almost 61% of the Romanian and Bulgarian workers in Great Britain are working more than 40 hours per week as compared to 32% in the case of British workers, the Office for National Statistics announced, according to the BBC. Migrants from the EU are probably overqualified for the jobs they have, and they tend to work more hours than the average number of working hours, shows the report of the Office for National Statistics. According to it, 1 in 7 employees (that is 14%) hired in retail trade and the hospitality industry is an international migrant and 64% of them come from the EU. The British government intends to change the way migration is managed after Great Britain leaves the EU.

Ankara — The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said that the representatives of the OSCE and of the Council of Europe, that have monitored Sunday’s referendum in Turkey regarding changes to the Constitution that expand the president’s powers, should “know their places”, after they leveled criticism at the way the referendum was organized in their preliminary report. The monitors said the vote “took place on an unlevel playing field and the two sides of the campaign did not have equal opportunities.” Erdogan also adopted a firm stance towards the EU saying that a referendum could be held to decide if Turkey will continue the accession negotiations with the EU. In another development, the US President Donald Trump has congratulated the Turkish president on his victory.

London snap elections – UK Prime Minister Theresa May has announced plans to call a snap general election on 8 June. She motivated her decision quoting Parliament’s lack of support for the government’s plan as the UK prepares to negotiate its exit from the EU. According to Theresa May, the government has a Brexit plan that will allow the UK to regain control of legislation and of its borders. She also underlined that the country needed security and a strong and stable leadership after the Brexit referendum.

Japanese art — The exhibition “Beautiful Handicrafts of Tohoku” organized by the Embassy of Japan, the Japan Foundation and the “Dimitrie Gusti” National Village Museum will open for visitors between April 20 and June 1 at the Village Museum in Bucharest. The inauguration of the exhibition will take place on April 25 in the presence of the Ambassador of Japan to Bucharest, his Excellency Kisaburo Ishii and Mrs. Paula Popoiu, the manager of the Village Museum. The exhibition displays the most important traditional handicrafts in Tohoku, showing the high level of traditional techniques, the functionality and beauty of objects and household tools that have been used since times immemorial up to the present time. 70 objects have been selected that belong to various art genres: ceramics, lacquer objects, metal ware, weavings, textiles, clothes and so on. The exhibition traveled to many parts of the world and could be admired in museums and galleries in Italy, Germany, Hungary, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, etc. (translation by L. Simion)