January 3, 2016

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 03.01.2016, 12:01

Early this
year, the Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos will pay formal visits to Germany, France
and the Netherlands, the country that took over the rotating presidency of the
EU on January 1st. The Romanian PM has stated that he has agreed with the Dutch
PM Mark Rutte to hold talks on the Dutch presidency’s calendar and agenda, as
Romania would like to play a pro-active role within the EU in the coming
period. The first visit will take place on January 7th, in Berlin, where Ciolos
will meet with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On January 20th,
Romania’s Constitutional Court will analyze the law on the local officials’
special pensions, contested by the Ciolos Government, according to which the
law would instate a special regime of privileges. The Government’s objections
are also related to the fact that the new rights would be granted
retroactively, and also that there is no funding secured for the newly
established indemnities. According to the Executive, there would be at least
16,300 beneficiaries, and the budget deficit would grow by some 91 million
Euros. Under the new law, endorsed by Parliament, mayors, deputy mayors,
presidents and vice-presidents of local councils would get additional pensions
of up to 1,500 Euros, depending on their time in office.

The Prime Minister Designate
of the Republic of Moldova, Ion Sturza, will on Monday call for Parliament’s
vote of confidence during a special meeting. On Saturday he presented his
cabinet’s membership and governing program. The cabinet is made up of members
of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Dignity and Truth Party, but also
members with no political affiliation. The independent Victor Chirila would be
the First Deputy Prime Minister,
Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, and the Liberal
Democrat Viorel Cibotaru was proposed for Defense Minister, an office he has
held before. The proposal for the Justice Ministry is the representative of the
Dignity and Truth Party, Stanislav Pavlovschi. Most parliamentary parties have
announced however that they will not support Sturza and the Socialists have
stated they will not participate in Monday’s meeting.

The European
Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, the German Gunther Oettinger, has
stated for the Sunday issue of the ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’, that a
unique procedure might be enforced against Warsaw, for violation of the EU’s fundamental values. The Polish
Parliament has endorsed a law which places the public media under the control of the
Conservative Party, which is currently ruling the country. According to the
publication, the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker wants to resort
to a procedure adopted in 2014, targeting the countries where there the rule of
law is under threat, and put the matter on the agenda of the Commission’s
meting on January 13th.

Germany has
called for tighter international cooperation, as security will remain a serious
issue in 2016 as well. The call was made following information that Islamic
State militants had planned an attack in Munich on New Year’s Eve. The German Interior
Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, has stated that, in the future, Germany will have
to cooperate closer with the foreign intelligence services.

The international community is worried
about the execution in Saudi Arabia of 47 people charged with terrorism,
including a Shiite clergy man, as that might have serious consequences. The US
Department of State has made an appeal to cooperation among the leaders in the
region and has stated that such executions might raise tension between sects.
The EU is worried too, as states such as Iran have threaten with retaliations.
Nimr Bakr al – Nimr, a high-ranking clergy man, was a virulent critic of the
Sunni dynasty that rules Saudi Arabia. In 2011, during the Arab Spring, he led
the protest movement in the east of the kingdom, where most of the Shiite
population reside. Nimr Bakr al-Nimbr was sentenced to death in October 2014
for terrorism and plotting against the sovereign.

Foreign employers
have over 2 thousand jobs in the EU for Romanian citizens. The jobs are
provided through the EURES Romania network. The most wanted are unskilled
agricultural workers, for which farms in Spain, Portugal and Denmark have
hundreds of jobs available. Moreover a
Czech company wants to employ 50 freight drivers and hospitals in Great Britain
and Germany are interested in hiring several dozens infirmary personnel and medical
nurses.

A code yellow
alert for blizzard is in place in ten counties in southern and south-western
Romania. The weather is extremely cold all over the country, with lows exceeding
the values normal for this time of the
year. The wind is blowing hard in the southern part, so the real feel is
that temperatures are much lower. A wave of warmer air is expected to enter the
country on Tuesday, so temperatures will get to the normal values. The highs
today range between minus 11 and minus 1 degree Celsius, with a minus 10 degree
reading in Bucharest at noon.