December 7, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news...

Newsroom, 07.12.2021, 20:56

AmCham – The American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham Romania) voices, in a communiqué, the concern of the business community that it represents regarding the intention of the governing coalition to increase the tax burden for large companies in Romania. According to AmCham, introducing such tax at a time when the investment and business climate is already challenged by multiple crises will only increase fiscal burden. After a period of prolonged political crisis during which the confidence of companies in the Romanian investment environment collapsed, overlapping with a peak period of the Covid crisis, rising energy prices and increasing tensions in the labour market, news about additional taxes only increases the risks of reorienting investment and expansion plans, the communiqué reads. In another development, Eurostat has announced that Romania and Slovakia have had the smallest economic growth in the EU, of only 0.4% in the third quarter of this year, as compared with the previous year.

REFORMS – Justice reforms can no longer be delayed, President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday at the presentation of the Higher Council of Magistracy’s 2021 activity report. Iohannis said the revision of laws has to be completed and “anomalies” such as the ones generated by the Section for the Investigation of Crimes in the Justice System must be removed. He also said that the pandemic and the changes in the domestic political sphere delayed the reforms initiated the years before but that the reform process has dragged long enough. Romanians’ expectations for a modern, independent and functional justice system are legitimate, the President also said.

CORONAVIRUS – More than 1,400 new cases of Covid-19 and 107 related deaths, of which 6 from before the current reference timeframe, were reported in Romania on Tuesday. The National Committee for Emergencies approved on Monday evening the decision on quarantine rules for those who enter Romania, against the current background created by the spread of the Omicron variant in Europe. The measures come in force on Friday, at midnight, and will stay in place until January 8th. According to the Committee, people travelling to Romania from green or yellow areas and have not been vaccinated, cannot show a negative PCR test or have not had the disease in the past 80 days will be quarantined for 14 days. The same measures apply to those who come from red zones and cannot provide the evidence mentioned above. More than 7.5 million people have been fully vaccinated in Romania so far.

PANDEMIC – The European Commission called on member states on Tuesday to coordinate travel restrictions in the context of a surge in the number of Covid-19 infections and of the spread of the new Omicron variant. The Commission asked for renewed campaigns in member countries to target unvaccinated people in all eligible age groups, with targeted national strategies to address vaccine hesitancy. The Covi-19 pandemic will be the priority topic on the European Summit’s agenda on December 16.

WHO – The World Health Organization has spoken out against the use of antibody-containing blood plasma from people who have recently recovered from COVID-19 to treat patients that have the disease. The WHO has argued that current evidence shows that its use does not increase the survival rate or reduce the need to use breathing devices. On the other hand, Omicron, the new strain of SARS-CoV2, has made its presence felt in many European countries, most cases, over 260, being announced on Monday in Denmark. The variant could become dominant in January also in France, currently facing the fifth epidemic wave. The Paris government has decided not to impose restrictions as it did in the past, but to strengthen the vaccination system and better control the viruss circulation in schools. The only spaces that will be closed for a month are nightclubs. In Germany, the new government plans to tighten restrictions as well. Overseas, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided on mandatory vaccination for private sector workers, a provision that will take effect on December 27. He described the decision as a precautionary measure to limit the increase in COVID-19 cases due to the new variant of the coronavirus, Omicron.

CONSTITUTION – In Romania, the ruling National Liberal Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians are in favor of a constitutional reform to reflect the changes in society. A new constitution would, among other things, clarify the powers of the president and ensure a balance of powers in the state. The revision of the current Constitution has been included in all the speeches given from the rostrum of the Parliament of Bucharest, which marked, on Monday, through a solemn sitting, 30 years since the adoption of the current Constitution of Romania, which consecrated the restoration of constitutional democracy and consolidated the pluralist political regime. The Fundamental Law was approved about two years after the anti-communist revolution of December 1989, and has since been revised only once, in 2003.