December 15, 2020 UPDATE

A news update

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Newsroom, 15.12.2020, 19:47

Decoration — Romania’s interim PM Nicolae Ciuca has been decorated, at the US Embassy in Bucharest, with the Legion of Merit in recognition of his merits during his activity as Chief of Defense Staff between January 2015 and December 2019. The US Ambassador to Romania Adrian Zuckerman has pointed out that the Legion of Honor is the highest distinction granted by the US Armed Forces to foreign military personnel. In turn, Nicolae Ciuca said the strategic partnership between Romania and the US is one of the pillars on which Romania’s defense is based and that it has significantly contributed to the development of the Romanian Armed Forces.

Covid-19 Romania — 6,171 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Romania in the past 24 hours, show data provided on Tuesday by the Strategic Communication Group. The total number of cases has exceeded 565 thousand. 204 Covid-19 related deaths have also been reported in the past 24 hours. So far 13,698 people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have died. A high number of COVID-19 patients are currently in ICUs. President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday summoned a new meeting dealing with the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic. Attending the meeting were the interim PM Nicolae Ciuca, the health minister Nelu Tataru and the head of the Department for Emergency Situations Raed Arafat. The authorities have recommended Romanians to limit their travels during the winter holidays in order to contain the spread of the virus. According to official reports, the coronavirus transmission rate has dropped as a result of local lockdown.

Pensions — The Constitutional Court of Romania on Tuesday ruled as unconstitutional the Law on the new system for the taxation of service pensions, which provides for an 85% tax on those pensions exceeding 7 thousand lei, around 1,440 Euros. The decision was made with unanimity of votes, and the entire law was declared unconstitutional. The law was adopted by Parliament in June and was immediately challenged at the Constitutional Court, which considers the law unconstitutional also because it infringes the fiscal equity principle. The Constitutional Court, whose members are also the beneficiaries of special pensions, had previously postponed making a decision in this case 4 times. In early 2020, more than 9 thousand Romanians were receiving special pensions among whom former magistrates, diplomats, MPs, aviators, military, policemen, gendarmes, firefighters and intelligence service employees. We recall that, in the summer, Parliament decided that pensions up to 2,000 lei (around 410 Euros) would be exempted from taxation, while pensions ranging from 2,000 lei to 7,000 lei would be taxed by 10%.

Handball – Romania’s national women’s handball team on Tuesday ended their adventure at the Euro 2020 losing the match against the Netherlands 24 to 35. They ended the championship hosted by Denmark on 12th position, this being the poorest result obtained by the Romanian team since the change of the system that now includes 16 teams. The Romanian handballers were ranked on last position in the competition’s main Group 2. On Monday, Romania lost to Hungary 26:24, after also losing to Croatia in their first main round match. Next Romania will participate in the pre-Olympic tournament of March hosted by Podgorica, Montenegro, where only the top 2 teams will qualify to the Olympic Games in Tokyo. (tr. L. Simion)