December 12, 2017
King Michaels coffin will be brought to Romania on Wednesday, Debates on Romanias draft budget for 2018
Newsroom, 12.12.2017, 13:40
King Michael — King Michael’s coffin, lying in state at a cathedral in Lausanne, will be brought Wednesday to Romania. The former sovereign died on December 5, at the age of 96, in Switzerland. On Monday Romania’s Parliament met in solemn session to pay homage to King Michael. Attending the ceremony were President Klaus Iohannis, Princess Margareta, the Custodian of the Crown of Romania, the former presidents of Romania Emil Constantinescu and Traian Basescu, the PM Mihai Tudose, the speakers of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu and Liviu Dragnea and the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daniel. The Romanian authorities have declared December 14, 15 and 16 days of national mourning. King Michael will be buried on Saturday December 16 with full state honors at Curtea de Arges, north of Bucharest, besides his wife Queen Anne, who died last year, and his ancestors.
Budget — The MPs in the budget and finance committees on Tuesday started debates on Romania’s draft budget for 2018. Next Monday the document will reach the plenum of Parliament, with the final vote on the budget being scheduled for Parliament’s joint session of December 21. The governing coalition claims the budget is balanced and sustainable, while the opposition has leveled criticism against it, considering that improvements have to be made. The draft budget is based on a 5.5% economic growth, the priority domains being healthcare, education, agriculture and infrastructure. The budget also provides for increased expenses for employees against the backdrop of enforcing the new salary law, as well as for an increase by 13 billion of investment expenditures. The opposition has filed a total number of 3,500 amendments related to education, healthcare, local administration, infrastructure, allocation of further resources for the construction of 1,400 kindergartens in the country’s main cities.
Inflation rate — Romania’s annual inflation rate reached 3.23% in November, this being the highest level reported in the past 4 years. According to data provided by the National Statistics Institute made public on Tuesday consumption prices continued to increase in November. As compared to the same period of last year, the prices of foodstuffs increased in November by 3.88%, those of nonfoods by 4.12% and the prices of services went up by 0.1%. The highest price rises were reported for eggs, butter and fuels. The National Bank of Romania has revised upwards the inflation forecast for the end of this year up to 2.7%.
Protests — The National Trade Union Bloc, one of the most important trade union organizations in Romania, on Tuesday organized a protest rally in Bucharest against the new measures imposed under the new Fiscal Code. They mainly contest the measure under which the obligation of paying social security contributions is transferred from employers to employees as of January 1, 2018. Trade unionists wanted to draw the government’s attention to the negative effects, on short term, and also on medium and long term, of this measure. The National Trade Union Bloc considers that the rights of workers are threatened and that the chances for work relations based on respect are deteriorating. The measures in the new Fiscal Code have also been criticized by other trade union organizations, by the business environment and the rightwing opposition.
Paris — The space agencies from 20 counties, including Romania, have suggested the setting up of a “Space Climate Observer” which will allow for mutual exchanges of scientific data obtained from space, France Press reports. A joint declaration in this regard, drafted upon France’s initiative, was signed on Monday in Paris by China, Japan, India, the EU, the UK, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Israel, Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates. The president of the National Center for Space Studies (Centre National dEtudes Spatiales) from Paris explained that, in a first stage, the agencies that are in favor of the project would consider the creation of common standards for their climate-related data. Their target is to create a website that should gather all these data, after the model of the site for space data about natural disasters at world level. (news translated by Lacramioara Simion)
