April 22, 2016

Click here for a round-up of news from Romania

Newsroom, 22.04.2016, 12:00

SALARY LAW-Romanian Prime Minister, Dacian Ciolos, announced on Friday that the Government was planning to reset its operating ways and to restart the drafting of an emergency ordinance, whose aim would not necessarily be to change the current salary law, but to correct it, with focus on the salary grid, but only within the right budgetary constraints. Ciolos has held talks with the new labour minister, Dragos Paslaru, with trade union and employers association representatives about the salary law in the public sector. According to Paslaru, the Government has prepared a new version of the ordinance on unitary salary pay system, which might be adopted on June 1st and enforced in autumn. Low salaries will go up first, says the minister, followed by measures aimed at doing away with the inequities in the system. Trade union leaders have stated they do not support this initiative.

THE REFERENDUM CASE-The Supreme Court is to issue its final ruling today on the so-called Referendum case. In May 2015, the leader of the Social Democratic Party Liviu Dragnea was sentenced to one year in prison with suspension, for having coordinated a complex mechanism, involving several people, with the aim of rigging the referendum on July 29th, 2012. Prosecutors say that Liviu Dragnea used his party influence and authority to get undue non-property rights, benefiting the political alliance his party was a member of. The stake was to get the needed participation quorum with votes obtained in conditions other than legal. Liviu Dragnea claims he was innocent and called on the magistrates to acquit him.

VISIT– US President, Barack Obama, is currently on an official visit to London, in an attempt to convince British voters, ahead of the June 23rd referendum, not to relinquish EU membership. Obama will urge Britons to vote for the UKs remaining in the EU, to maintain the countrys welfare, its “special relation with the US and the Wests cohesion. Obama is today having talks with British Prime Minister, David Cameron. Earlier, the White House leader had paid a visit to Saudi Arabia, where he participated in a Gulf cooperation meeting, held in Riyadh.

GREECE – The Euro zone finance ministers are today assessing in Amsterdam the progress made by Greece in reforming the state, in exchange for receiving foreign financial assistance, to save it from bankruptcy. The Euro-group meeting comes just a day after the European Commission announced that Athens reached the objectives it has set in an effort to reduce its budget deficit and public debt, and it even exceeded all expectations. The assessment to be made by the finance ministers is of utmost importance, as the disbursement of another instalment of the third big loan for Greece, worth 86 billion Euros, depends on this decision. The Greek government as well as its European partners continue to have different standpoints on various reforms, including those of taxation and pensions.

EARTH DAY– Earth Day is being celebrated on April 22nd. On this occasion, 160 countries will sign, in New York, a historic agreement meant to slow down global warming. The agreement was reached in principle at the Paris Conference held in December. Earth Day was first celebrated back in 1970, kick-starting the modern environmental protection movement. On this day, various campaigns have been designed to raise public awareness over recycling and to reduce energy consumption. Earth Day is celebrated in Romania, too, where selective waste collecting activities have been intensely promoted.

WORLD DRUG PROBLEM – The UN General Assembly
convened in New York, in its 30th special session, on the world drug
problem. Romania’s Permanent Representative to the UN, ambassador Ion
Jinga, said the National Anti-Drug Strategy is in full compliance with the
international legislative framework and ensures enough action-flexibility at
national, regional and international level.
In a special session, Romania organised, jointly with the UN Office for
Drugs and Crimes, an event on the drug
issue and HIV.



with the UN Office for Drugs and Crimes, an event on the drug issue and HIV.

BULGARIA– Mandatory voting will be introduced in Bulgaria, after the Parliament in Sofia on Thursday adopted the new amendments to the Electoral Code. If citizens with the right to vote do not go to the polls, they will automatically be removed from electoral lists. They will be enlisted again only after submitting a written declaration. The opposition voted against the bill. According to FP, the right wing government in Sofia proposed the measure, in an effort to reduce absenteeism and to put an end to the vote-purchasing behaviour. Across the EU, voting is also mandatory in Greece and Belgium.

EUROVISION– The European Broadcasting Union has today announced that Romania will not be allowed to participate in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, because of the debts it has accumulated. Romanias debt to the organiser of the well-known European song contest stands at some 10 million Euros. This year, the Eurovision contest will be held in Stockholm, between May 10 and 14, and Romania should have been represented by Ovidiu Anton, with the song, Moment of Silence. The management of the Romanian Television Company has recently informed the Romanian authorities that the transmissions of other leading competitions, such as the forth-coming European Football Championships in France or the Olympic Games might be discontinued, because of debts and under-financing.

(Translated by Diana Vijeu)