August 26, 2015 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 26.08.2015, 12:15
As many as 85 thousand state employees might join, on September 1st, the possible all-out strike announced by the employees of the Romanian Air Traffic Administration- ROMATSA. In a communiqué made public on Wednesday the state employees’ trade union leaders say their solidarity with the air traffic controller’s strike is due to the fact that they have common goals related to institutional de-politicization and professionalism. Air traffic controllers are asking for higher wages, the reduction of the retirement age from 65 to 55, for the improvement of working conditions as well as for the resignation of the current leaders. On July 15th they went on a 2-hour token strike – which was an unprecedented situation for Romanian air traffic. According to ROMATSA, which at present has around 1,500 employees, Romania’s territory is transited daily by 2,500 up to 3,000 planes.
The leaders of the Romanian parliamentary parties will hold talks, Thursday, on the fiscal code bill that president Klaus Iohannis sent back to Parliament for re-examination. On Monday the parties in the governing coalition as well as the opposition parties agreed that the code should not be adopted in a haste and gave up the extraordinary parliamentary session they had scheduled for the debate and vote of the draft code. The request for re-examination will be voted in an ordinary session next week. Previously supported by the Government and unanimously voted by senators and deputies, the fiscal code bill was sent back to Parliament by president Iohannis who claims its application is not sustainable.
The Romanian prime minister will visit the neighboring Republic of Moldova on Thursday August 27th when this country celebrates Independence Day. Accompanied by a government delegation PM Ponta will meet with his Moldovan counterpart, pro-western Valeriu Strelet, who was sworn in last month. He will also meet with the Moldovan president, Nicolae Timofti, and with the speaker of parliament Andrian Candu. On Wednesday the Romanian government approved the agreement related to the interconnection of natural gas and electricity networks of the two states and decided on the extension from 4 to 8 years of the period set for granting to Chisinau a non-reimbursable contribution of 100 million euros. Set up on part of the Romanian eastern territories annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, following an ultimatum, the Republic of Moldova proclaimed its independence in August 1991.
The Romanian defense minister, Mircea Dusa, announced Wednesday that on September 3rd NATO commands of the NFIU-type, that is force integration units, would be inaugurated simultaneously in 6 states on the eastern flank of the Alliance, Romania included. He made the announcement on the occasion of his meeting, on a shooting range in Galati county, in the east, with American, Italian and Spanish soldiers participating in the Swift Response 15 exercise. The drill is taking place until September 13th in Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and Romania, with the participation of almost 5 thousand soldiers from the allied countries. The exercise is meant to integrate the rapid reaction forces of several nations, which should confirm NATO’s capacity to maintain a strong and safe Europe. Led by the US this is the largest scale NATO exercise involving airborne forces unfolding in Europe since the end of the Cold War.
The Romania woman judoka Corina Căprioriu won the silver medal at the World Judo Championships of Astana, Kazakhstan. On Wednesday in the 57 kg category she was defeated in the final by Japanese Kaori Matsumoto. This is the 2nd silver medal obtained by the Romanian athletes after, on Tuesday, Andreea Chiţu lost the final of the 52 kg category to another Japanese athlete, Misato Nakamura. In the men’s competition Romania will be represented by Cristian Bodîrlău and Denis Mititelu in the 81 kg category and by Valentin Radu in the 100 kg category and Daniel Natea in the over 100 kg category.
The Romanian government approved Wednesday the emergency ordinance through which the staff in the healthcare system will benefit from a salary rise of 25% as of October 1st. In another development, in Romania, the health card will become compulsory as of September 1st and will thus become the only instrument for refunding and validating medical services in the public system for the insured aged over 18. Provision of emergency medical services will not be conditioned on the health card, but as regards chronic diseases patients will be obliged to present the card to all medical service providers. As many as 15 million cards have already been issued and another 600 thousand will be issued by the end of the year.
