June 31, 2017

Romanian PM and Spanish Ambassador meet to discuss labor issues; Ruling coalition meets in Bucharest to discuss extraordinary Parliament session

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Mihai Pelin, 31.07.2017, 13:42

AMBASSADOR — Romanian PM Mihai Tudose invited today Spanish Ambassador to Bucharest Ramiro Fernandez-Bachiller, to discuss cases of Romanians being exploited in Spain. The talks will also be attended by Minister for Romanians Everywhere, Andreea Păstîrnac. The meeting was scheduled after news broke out in Spain and Italy regarding dozens of cases of Romanians being exploited by employers. Several civic organizations called on the authorities in Bucharest to get more involved in the issues facing Romanians abroad, and the premier has decided to grant additional attributions to the Ministry for Romanians Everywhere.

PENSIONS — Romanian Minister for Labor, Olguta Vasilescu, said that the government will issue this week an emergency executive order regarding special pensions. Right now, special pensions adjust in line with standing salaries, while the order changes the rules for pensions to adjust to inflation. She said the order is expected to come into effect by mid-September, with the new regulations applying only past that date. Minister Vasilescu also said that child rearing allocations would be set a ceiling of 1,800 Euro, the maximum practiced in Europe at present.

BUCHAREST — In Bucharest, the ruling coalition meets to decide on calling for an extraordinary parliament session, planned for the first week of August. Recently, Social-Democrat PM Mihai Tudose said this meeting was needed to decide whether or not to place under City Hall the ELCEN power company. Opposition Liberals said they would attend the meeting, but believe the agenda should cover several other issues. One of them, they said, should be a hearing for Minister of Finance, Ionut Misa, regarding the first semester budget, which the Liberals described as catastrophic. At the same time, the Social-Democrat/ Liberal Democrat Alliance coalition will also decide on suing in Constitutional Court in relation to a possible legal conflict between the Public Ministry and Parliament. The proposal comes from the committee in charge of investigating the 2009 elections. They claim that the General Prosecutors Office refuses to release a copy of their file on the contested presidential elections.

UNEMPLOYMENT — Unemployment in Romania was 5.3% at the end of June, .1 percent less than the month before, says the National Institute of Statistics. According to the NIS, Romania has not had such a low rate of unemployment since 1994, the year official statistics were issued based on international standards. The number of unemployed now stands at approximately 470,000 people. For men, unemployment was 1.5 percent higher than for women. The International Labor Bureau said that over 74% of the total number of unemployed for June are between 24 and 74 years of age.

TENNIS — Romanian tennis star Simona Halep, 2nd seeded, who holds a wild card, will play against another wild card, Sloan Stephens of the US, 926th seeded, in the first round of the WTA tournament in Washington, starting today, with 250,000 dollars in prize money. Two more Romanians play in the competition, Monica Niculescu, ranked 57th, and Patricia Maria Tig, ranked 136. Niculescu plays against 92nd ranked Japanese player Nao Hibino, while Tig will play against a player emerging from the qualifiers. In the mens competition, in the singles Romanian Marius Copil, ranked 86th, plays against American Sekou Bangoura, ranked 309th. In the doubles, the Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer plays against Bulgarian-French team Grigor Dimitrov and Lucas Pouille. All games are scheduled for Tuesday.

FOOTBALL — Several Romanian football teams play this week in the second leg of the third round of European cup preliminaries. In the Champions League on Wednesday, vice-champions FCSB, formerly Steaua Bucharest), play against the Czech team Viktoria Plzen, after tying 2-2 in the first leg. Also on Wednesday, champions FC Viitorul Constanta faced off against Cyprus team APOEL Nicosia, after winning 1-0 at home. In the Europa League, on Thursday, Universitatea Craiova plays Italian top tear team AC Milan, Dinamo Bucharest plays against Athletic Bilbao, while Astra Giurgiu plays against Ukrainian team FK Oleksandria. In the first leg, Dinamo and Astra tied 1-1 and nil-all, respectively, against their opponents. Craiova was defeated 1-0 by Milan. All the games Romanian teams play this time are away from home.

TOURISM — 66% of Romanian could not afford a vacation abroad longer than a week, as compared to one third of the EU population, with 32.9%, according to the European Institute of Statistics. Romania come in last among EU citizens in this respect, with Croatians, Bulgarians and Greeks ranking right above. At the opposite pole are Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark and Finland.