December 20, 2018 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 20.12.2018, 19:44

PARLIAMENT The Parliament of Romania on
Thursday rejected the second no-confidence motion filed by the opposition
against the Government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance
of Liberals and Democrats, and headed by Viorica Dăncila. The motion did not
gather the necessary number of votes to pass, namely 233. Only 161 MPs cast
their votes. The opposition claims the current Cabinet is a threat to Romania’s
national interests, to its economic and political stability. The authors of the
motion criticize the laws on the judiciary and claim the Prime Minister failed
to comply with the governing programme undertaken at the start of her term. In
reply, the PM claimed that the alternative the Opposition offers to the
citizens is to suspend income increases and even to slash salaries and pensions.
Viorica Dancila also defended the justice laws, emphasizing that they were
endorsed by Parliament, rather than by an emergency decree as it was the case
with the Ciolos Cabinet.

STOCK EXCHANGE The Association of Capital Market
Professionals says the prospective endorsement of a recent government decree on
fiscal and budgetary measures is the most brutal and irrational attack against
the Romanian capital market since its re-establishment in 1995. The Bucharest
Stock Exchange opened on a slight increase today, but plunged back down, after
experiencing its worst day so far on Wednesday.
Substantial losses were reported by banks, energy and utilities companies,
after on Tuesday the Finance Minister
Eugen Teodorovici announced that by the end of the year a government decree
would be passed introducing certain fiscal and budgetary measures. These
include a so-called tax on greed charged on banking revenues, and a package
concerning energy companies, such as a 3% of turnover contribution, a cap on
natural gas prices and electricity price control. The business community
in Romania warned against the negative effects of the new taxes announced by
the Government for 2019. President Klaus Iohannis urged the Cabinet to
reconsider the decree, to negotiate it with employers and trade unions and to
endorse a more sustainable version after thorough analysis and review.

EU The President of Romania, Klaus
Iohannis, receives in Bucharest on Friday the Chancellor of Austria Sebastian
Kurz, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council.
Romania will symbolically take over the presidency of the EU Council, which it
will hold as of January 1. The 2 officials will discuss the priorities on the
European agenda, such as the future of the Union, the EU budget after 2020,
Brexit, and the elections for the European Parliament. On Wednesday in a
meeting with the EU ambassadors to Bucharest, President Klaus Iohannis said
Romania’s goal during its presidency of the EU Council is to begin as soon as
possible the negotiations on the future relations between the Union and
Britain, if the withdrawal agreement is ratified by London and approved by the
European Parliament. Iohannis also said that Romania supports a stronger
European Union, which is closer to its citizens and able to guarantee their
security and prosperity. He also emphasized the importance of the informal
meeting of European leaders in Sibiu on May 9, 2019, when the EU strategic
agenda for 2019-2024 will be discussed.

JUDICIARY Romania’s Supreme
Court suspended the serving of prison sentences received by several high-level
officials under corruption charges. Among them are the former Minister of
Regional Development, Elena Udrea, the former chief of the anti-terrorism and
anti-mafia directorate Alina Bica, who requested asylum in Costa Rica, the
former head of the tax authority, Serban Pop, and former Social Democratic
ministers and MPs Dan Şova and Constantin Niţă. They have been released, until
final rulings are passed on their appeals. The argument put forth for the
suspension of their sentences was that the membership of the 5-judge panels
passing the rulings had not been correct. The supreme court held drawing of
lots sessions for the 5-judge panels 3 times this year, when the Law on the
organisation of courts was modified, further to a Constitutional Court
decision, at the request of the Government and following an objection by the
Social Democratic Party president Liviu Dragnea, who is tried for corruption at
the Bucharest Court of Appeals.

COMMEMORATION Sirens sounded for 3
minutes in Timisoara on Thursday, in memory of the day of December 20, 1989.
This was the moment when, 29 years ago, Timisoara was proclaimed the first city
free from communism in Romania. The largest plants went on strike back then,
and workers gathered in the city centre, alongside tens of thousands of other
locals. The Army withdrew from streets, the protesters who had been arrested
were released, and the people’s demands were read out from the famous Opera
House balcony. Also on December 20, the first revolutionary committee, called
The Romanian Democratic Front, was set up. Members of the families of the
Timisoara victims travelled to Bucharest to commemorate one of the most
important events in modern Romanian history. They arrived at the place where
the bodies of 44 Timisoara heroes, shot dead on December 17, were cremated. The
uprising that started in Timisoara spread on December 21 to Bucharest and other
Romanian cities. Over 1,000 people died and some 3,000 others were wounded in
the shootings in Romania, the only Eastern Bloc country where the communist
regime was toppled violently and where the communist leaders were executed.

FOOTBALL Romania’s national
football team will end the year on the 24th position in the ranking the
International Football Federation (FIFA) made public on Thursday. Romania
started the year on the 40th place. This year’s 24th
place is the best ranking Romania’s football team has held since 2016. The
team’s future opponents in the EURO 2020 qualifiers are Spain, in 9th
place, Sweden – 14, Norway – 46, Faeroe – 98, and Malta – 182.

(Translated by
A.M. Popescu & Vlad Palcu)