December 16, 2015 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 16.12.2015, 12:15
A strong Romania is more than an aspiration, it is a national project we are already building, the Romanian president Klaus Iohannis told Parliament on Wednesday, one year after taking office. He said 2015 has shown that a wide consensus on public issues could be achieved, citing the 2016 budget and the political agreement on boosting defence spending to 2% of the GDP by 2017. The countrys new defence strategy, which for the first time included aspects related to education, healthcare, the preservation of national identity and the protection of the countrys heritage also enjoyed a large majority. Speaking about Romanias foreign policy, Iohannis said its priorities in 2015 were the consolidation of the partnership with the US and of the strategic alliances with France, Poland, Germany, Spain, Britain and Turkey, as well strengthening ties with neighbouring states such as Ukraine, Serbia and Bulgaria. A privileged relationship with the majority Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova has been and will remain a constant feature of Romanias foreign policy, Klaus Iohannis also told Parliament.
The Romanian prime minister, Dacian Cioloş said Wednesday before the plenum of Parliament that the Romanian government would implement the national budget for 2016 in a transparent, efficient and especially prudent way, in order to avoid any side-slip. The statement was made after Parliament passed the bills on the 2016 state and social security budgets. Referring to the forecast budget revenues, which are higher by 800 million euros than in 2015, PM Cioloş said the executive wants to simplify the tax collection system, while maintaining the respect for citizens and companies. As regards the budget expenditure, which was increased by almost 2.9 billion euros, the government intends to reduce money waste by making public procurement more transparent and efficient, by reforming and reducing the loss of state-owned companies and by increasing the efficiency of public administration.
The Romanian PM Dacian Cioloş will participate on Thursday and Friday in Brussels in the European Council meeting. Heads of state and government from the 28 EU member states will talk, among others, about fighting terrorism, protecting the EU’s external borders and the migration crisis. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Brussels, the European Commission will propose to member states a voluntary mechanism for taking over refugees directly from Turkey. Another topic on the European Council meeting agenda is the European future of Great Britain. The German chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that Germany wanted to reach an agreement for maintaining Great Britain within the EU but that it would not accept to give up essential community principles such as the free movement of people and the equality of the member states’ citizens. The British PM David Cameron promised to hold by the end of 2017 a referendum on Great Britain’s EU membership. London wants the reform of the EU so as to meet the British interests, especially in terms of the free movement of people in general and of the labor force.
The Romanian Parliament will convene on December 21 in a solemn session to mark 26 years since the December 1989 revolution, the vice president of the Senate, Ioan Chelaru announced on Wednesday. An anti-communist uprising that led to the toppling of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu began on December 16th, 1989 in the western city of Timisoara. To commemorate the people who died 26 years ago, associations of revolutionaries and local authorities are holding a series of events and ceremonies. The protests in Timisoara quickly spread across the country, leading to the ousting of Nicolae Ceausescu on December 22nd. More than 1,000 people died and around 3,400 were wounded between 16th and 25th December 1989. Romania was the only country in the former eastern bloc where regime change was accompanied by bloodshed and where the deposed communist leaders were executed.
The president of the Republic of Moldova, Nicolae Timofti, said that on Friday he would hold talks with the leaders of the three political parties — the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic party and the Liberal Party — that declare themselves pro-European and are negotiating the formation of a new governing alliance, according to Radio Chisinau. The Moldovan President on Thursday held another round of negotiations with the leaders of the aforementioned parties, one and a half month since the fall of the government led by the Liberal Democrat Valeriu Strelet. According to analysts, the talks are difficult in the context in which the interim president of the Liberal Democratic Party Valeriu Strelet and the leader of the Democratic Party, Marian Lupu, both want to designate the prime minister. In turn, the leader of the Liberal Party, Mihai Ghimpu, labeled the debates as a political deadlock rather than an attempt to diffuse the situation. According to the Moldovan Constitution the current parliament has to invest the new government by January 29. Otherwise it will be dissolved and early elections will be held.
The Romanian transporters will hold, on Thursday, a large-scale protest in Bucharest. They are discontent with the increase in the insurance policy price and with the frequent changes in the transportation legislation, which affect their activity. The transporters’ representatives say that in the past 6 months the price of the insurance policy has increased by 300% in the context in which the number of accidents has not gone up, nor has the number of damages granted. In another development several thousand shepherds protested Tuesday before Parliament against the modifications to the hunting law. The law bans grazing from December to April and restricts the number of sheepdogs that can guard the sheep. The government promised to work out a solution to the shepherds’ discontent.
