December 24, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 24.12.2014, 19:51
Romania’s freshly sworn-in president Klaus Johannis has conveyed a Christmas message to all Romanians, be they at home or abroad. According to the message, Christmas is mainly a family celebration, but in Romania, a great number of children have been separated from their parents, who had to leave and work abroad. So the President feels for all the Romanian children who miss their parents, and all the parents that have to spend Christmas without their children. Prime Minister Victor Ponta has also conveyed a message to all Romanians, saying that this year Christmas bears a special significance, as Romanians commemorated 25 years since the December 1989 anti-communist Revolution. In his message, King Mihai 1st has urged all Romanian to stay united. He has also said that in late 2014 the country had to make a very important democratic option and has voiced hope that from now on the rule of law and the respect for the state institutions will be crucial for Romania.
24th of December is Christmas Eve for Orthodox and Catholic Christians worldwide, Romania included. It’s the day when last-gasp preparations are made for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, which is one of Christianity’s most notable celebrations. Christmas means special divine services held in churches and monasteries, but also the reenactment of a beautiful set of traditions and plentiful Christmas dinners in the family. One of the most widespread customs on Christmas Eve is caroling, actually a ritual comprising ceremonial texts, dances and gestures. Carolers convey wishes of prosperity and are rewarded by the hosts with fruit, pretzels, sweets and money. Old-Rite Orthodox Christians, predominant in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova celebrate Christmas on January 7. A recent survey has revealed that during the winter holidays, one third of Romanians spend twice as much than in the other periods throughout the year. As for the chosen venues sixty six per cent of Romanians chose to stay at home with the family, while only a quarter of them have planned their winter holiday well in advance, saving money and making early bookings for accommodation and plane tickets.
Romanian Finance Minister Darius Valcov has stated he sees no reason why Bucharest should extend the agreement with the IMF, which ends in September 2015. A new agreement is not a priority, given that Romania is stable enough to deal with things without guidance, the minister said. I would very much like to see Romania living its dream. Let us try and not live other people’s dreams”, Darius Valcov also said. The statements were made against the background of Prime Minister Victor Ponta’s saying that Romania could conclude a new agreement with the IMF, following Poland’s model, with a flexible credit line, and with less rigid terms. Romania’s current agreement with the IMF, which is a stand by accord, is the third since the onset of the economic crisis.
The ruling coalition and the opposition in Romania are yet again divided over the state and social security budget the Parliament has voted into law recently. The liberals said the law was unconstitutional and challenged it at the Constitutional Court, which on December 29 will be looking into it. Challenging the state budget law could stall the implementation of the social security measures, scheduled to take effect early in 2015, Labour Minister Rovana Plumb said.
The Liberals have also challenged the Law on cyber security at the Constitutional Court. Signing the notification were a couple of dozens of National Liberal Party MPs, who were adamant in stating the law infringed upon citizens’ fundamental rights. Civil society in Romania has also criticized the law. The Senate’s Defense Committee stated the law did not target natural persons, adding they needed to pass the law so that they could cope with cyber threats, whose complexity and frequency had been growing . The law stipulates that a reasoned notification instead of a court order is lawfully sufficient for the authorities to get access to data stored by holders of cyber infrastructure networks.
The newly-elected Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet republic, with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population, is to convene on December 29, one day ahead of the set deadline for the Parliament’s first session. The three pro-European parties that have won Parliament seats, the Liberal Democrat, the Democrat and the Liberal parties for a couple of weeks now have been holding talks to form a new governing coalition. Together, the three parties got 55 seats out of the total number of 101, which is enough for the three parties to form the parliamentary majority, also enabling them to form a new government, but not enough to cast the vote for the presidential candidate or to change the Constitution.
Ukraine should first complete the country’s reform process, fight against corruption and set up a state infrastructure, and only then submit its NATO accession application, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, quoted by the media in Norway. The North Atlantic Alliance does not intend to take any initiative in that respect, Stoltenberg also said. The Parliament in Kiev on Tuesday adopted a law under which the country gives up its neutral status in order to get closer to NATO. The decision was made as a result of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, while the conflict with separatist rebels in the east continues. Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko is to promulgate the law, also turning Ukraine’s bid to gain NATO accession into one his foreign policy’s top priorities. Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that Ukraine’ s decision is counterproductive and will only worsen the situation in the region.
