March 22, 2017 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 22.03.2017, 19:56
ATTACKS At least four people died and some 20, including two Romanian citizens, were wounded in London on Wednesday, in two attacks committed by the same perpetrator. In the first one, a car mounted the pavement and ploughed into pedestrians crossing the busy Westminster Bridge beside Londons Big Ben. The French Foreign Ministry has announced that three French students were among the wounded ones. After this first attack, the driver of the car rushed at the gates in front of the Houses of Parliament and stabbed a policeman. Prime Minister Theresa May, who was in the Parliament building during the incident, called for an emergency Cabinet session. Authorities say the attack is being treated as a ‘terrorist incident’. Also on Wednesday, Belgium marked one year since the attacks on the Brussels metro and airport, which killed 32 people and wounded another 320. Four Romanian citizens were among the wounded. The attacks in Brussels, claimed by the Islamic State, were committed by members of the same French-Belgian cell that perpetrated the attacks of November 2015 in Paris, killing 130 people.
EMA After Brexit, Romania would like to host the headquarters of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), currently based in London, the Romanian Government announced on Wednesday. The Romanian European Affairs Minister Ana Birchall has stated that the Executive has already passed a memorandum on the matter. She has recalled that Romania does not host any European agency, although its been ten years since the country joined the EU. EMA has some 900 employees and its chief role is to act as the regulatory agency deciding if medical products are safe for the European market. Reuters reports that Denmark, Sweden, Spain, France, Ireland and Poland would like to host the agency too. Besides benefiting from new jobs, acting as host of EMA is likely to have a huge knock-on effect for any countrys medical and pharmaceutical industry.
FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE Romanias President Klaus Iohannis announced on Wednesday that he would hold consultations with the parliamentary majority formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania on the appointment of the new director of the Foreign Intelligence Service. The head of state appreciated the activity of the interim director Silviu Predoiu, but said the institution needed a civilian chief. Also on Wednesday, Parliament acknowledged the resignation of Mihai Razvan Ungureanu as head of the service and declared the office vacant. Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, a former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Romania, resigned in September last year.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Pardon is not a miracle-solution for Romanias overcrowded penitentiaries, although the country runs the risk of getting a sentence from the European Court of Human Rights, the Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has said in a debate on democracy and justice in Romania, organized by the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. Toader has also said he called on the Romanian Parliament to postpone the pardon bill, for the Government to be able to take additional measures. Romanian MEPs and civil society representatives also spoke before the aforementioned committee. In Brussels, Minister Toader also met with Vera Jourova, the European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality. The agenda of talks included the next European Commission report on the progress made by Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.
BUDGET The Romanian Senate and Chamber of Deputies decided on Wednesday to sent back to the special committees the report on the parliamentary investigation into the conditions in which the August and November 2016 budgets were adjusted. Many MPs say that the report was not drawn up properly and is incomplete. The document shows that, in 2016, budget revenues were 5% below the forecast, which did not justify the positive adjustments made last year. The investigation into this matter was requested by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the Social Democrat Liviu Dragnea. Invested in January 2017, the current government made up of members of the Social Democratic Party and of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania has denounced the budget adjustments made in 2016, which allegedly caused a budget deficit of some 2 billion Euros this year. The right-wing opposition, however, believes that the Government is only trying distract attention from its own lack of accomplishments and failure to keep electoral promises.
STRIKE Part of the employees of Romanias railway company CFR Infrastructure went on an unannounced strike on Wednesday, causing delays on some routes and halting scores of trains. According to trade union leaders, the collective employment agreement has expired and, although the companys board proposed a 22.5% rise in the overall salary fund, the move isnt legally grounded, as the budget hasnt been approved. CFR employees are also unhappy with the improper conditions they work in, as well as the shortage of equipment and fuel. Trade union leaders discussed these matters on Wednesday with representatives of the Romanian Transport Ministry.
BUSINESS A study by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC), published on Wednesday, reads that big international corporations will keep on moving their production capacities from Asia to Romania this year too. According to PwC, the local market will maintain its upward trend in 2017, as sectors such as the medical and pharmaceutical one, as well as the consumption goods and services sector have grown stronger. Although last year the overall value of mergers and acquisitions was 17% higher than in 2015, exceeding 3.6 billion Euros, the business environment still needs to be further encouraged, the study made by PwC also shows. In another move, the Romanian Trade Registry announced on Wednesday that, in the first two months of the year, Romanians set up some 17,000 new companies, which is 11% less than in the same period last year.
JOINT GOVERNMENT SESSION The governments of Romania and of the neighboring Republic of Moldova, the ex-Soviet country with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population, will be holding another joint session in Piatra Neamt north-eastern Romania, on Thursday. The two delegations headed by Prime Ministers Sorin Grindeanu and Pavel Filip respectively will discuss ways of developing bilateral ties, joint projects and new cooperation opportunities. Investment opportunities in the Republic of Moldova will also be tackled, as well as cooperation in the fields of IT, finance, justice and home affairs. “The relation between the two countries is a special one. There are common expectations and shared interests. Well continue to support the European progress of the Republic of Moldova”, Romanias Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu has said on behalf of the Romanian government. The talks with Grindeanus pro-Western counterpart come after last week Moldovas president, the Pro-Russian socialist Igor Dodon, reiterated in Moscow his intention to consider denouncing the countrys association and free-trade agreements with the EU and deepening the relations with the Eurasian Economic Union as well as the federalization of the Republic of Moldova as a peace solution for the pro-Russia breakaway region of Transdniester.
