January 6, 2020 UPDATE

President Iohannis Monday signed into law the 2020 state budget and social security budget bills

Newsroom, 06.01.2020, 20:00

VISITS The president of Romania Klaus Iohannis and PM Ludovic Orban have working visits scheduled for the next few days, including meetings with European officials. The head of state will travel on Tuesday to southern Germany, where he will have talks with the Bavarian PM Markus Soder, head of the Christian-Social Union, a partner in the ruling coalition in Germany, and will attend a meeting of the Bavarian government, where he will give an address. President Iohannis will also take part in the annual meeting of the CSU group in Bundestag, the lower chamber in the German parliament, where he is to present Romanias views on the future of Europe. On Tuesday, PM Ludovic Orban will travel to Brussels, for meetings with the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli.

BUDGET President Klaus Iohannis Monday signed into law the 2020 state budget and social security budget bills, the Presidency announced. On December 23, the Liberal Government took responsibility before Parliament for the budget bills, the first time when this procedure has been used, in order to make sure that the bills are adopted by year-end, as PM Ludovic Orban explained. The state budget relies on a 4.1% economic growth rate, a 3.1% inflation rate and an average exchange rate of 4.75 lei for the euro. The speakers of the 2 chambers of Parliament, both in Opposition, challenged the procedure and referred the issue to the Constitutional Court.

HOSPITAL Human error was the cause of the incident at the Floreasca Hospital in Bucharest, the largest emergency unit in Romania, where a patient died last month after suffering burns during surgery. This is the conclusion of the investigation that resulted in a roughly 6,300 euro fine against the hospital, as well as penalties against the entire surgery team. According to a news release issued by the Healthcare Ministry, the hospital also decided to dismiss Dr. Mircea Beuran as head of surgery, for failure to comply with the management contract. Doctors, nurses and assistants announced on Monday that they will go on strike to protest Dr. Beurans dismissal and that they will only attend to major emergencies. At the end of last month the National Healthcare Quality Management Authority suspended the accreditation of the hospital for failure to report the incident within 24 hours.

EPIPHANY Orthodox and Greek Catholic believers celebrated on Monday the Epiphany or the Baptism of Jesus, when the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ is marked. Waters are blessed on this occasion. The Epiphany is followed, on Tuesday, by St. John the Baptists feast day, which concludes the winter holiday cycle. Old-rite Christians, mostly Russian, Ukrainian and Serb ethnics, are celebrating Christmas on January 7. The separation of Orthodox churches took place in the early 20th Century, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople decided to switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.

TENSIONS NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg
has called on Iran to avoid further violence and provocations, at the end of
a special meeting with NATO ambassadors in Brussels. We share concerns
regarding Iran’s missile tests, and are united in condemning Tehran’s support
for various terrorist groups, Stoltenberg also said. Huge crowds in mourning
and shouting Death to the USA accompanied in Tehran on Monday the coffin of General
Qassem Soleimani, the most popular military commander in Iran, killed in Iraq
in a US drone strike. As a result, Iran announced it will no longer be
bound by the international nuclear deal reached in 2015, and which the Trump
administration abandoned in 2018. European countries, still part of the agreement,
said they deeply regretted Iran’s decision to disregard uranium enrichment
restrictions. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with Russia’s
president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday. Meanwhile, US president Donald
Trump threatened tough sanctions if Iraq expels the US troops from that
country. Trump made this statement after the Iraqi parliament endorsed a
resolution urging the government to work toward the removal of foreign troops
from Iraq. In Bucharest, PM Ludovic Orban said he is monitoring the situation with
concern and attention, and that an escalation of the tensions is not desired.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)