May 15, 2017

Finance Ministry employees go on strike over draft salary law

Newsroom, 15.05.2017, 13:52

PROTEST – Nearly 22,000 employees with the Romanian Finance Ministry have taken part today in an unplanned protest, in response to the salary bill under debate in Parliament. They say the draft law puts them at a disadvantage. Trade union leaders in the sector had talks with representatives of the Ministry, but no results have been reached and negotiations will be resumed on Wednesday. The protesters call on the Government and the Finance Ministry to revise the pay schemes in the bill, so that they should reflect the complexity and importance of the activity of the Ministry and its subordinated units. They warn that the strike is open-ended, which may hamper the tax collection activities and the institutions public relations. Employees of the customs system are also taking part in the protest.

CYBER-SECURITY – The Romanian Intelligence Service is organising the first national cyber-security exercise, which will last until Wednesday and involve more than 60 public and private institutions. The effort is designed to help develop an efficient warning, alert and response system against cyber attacks and other incidents. According to the Romanian Intelligence Service, the excercise had been planned before the ransomware attack that crippled computers around the world late last week. Fridays global attack known as “WannaCry made over 200,000 victims, especially institutions, from at least 150 countries. The Romanian Intelligence Service confirmed that Romania was affected by the attack since May 12, but the scope is yet to be determined. One of the targets was the Romanian Foreign Ministry, where an attempted cyber attack was countered on Friday.

INFLATION – The National Bank of Romania has revised downwards its inflation forecast for the end of the year, from 1.7% to 1.6%, and the one for 2018 from 3.4% to 3.1%, the central bank governor Mugur Isarescu announced on Monday. Since 2013, the National Banks inflation target has been 2.5% per year, plus/minus 1%. The inflation targeting strategy was introduced in line with the European Central Bank policies, but the central bank of Romania rarely managed to meet this target. In 2016, the inflation target was negative 0.5%, slightly below estimates, according to the National Statistics Institute, mostly due to the lowering of the standard VAT rate from 24% to 20%, as of January 1, 2016.

EU – The EU Foreign Ministers are analysing today, in a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, the progress made under the Eastern Partnership, which focuses on the cooperation with 6 ex-Soviet states, including the Republic of Moldova. Romania is represented by Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu. The talks take place ahead of the Partnership summit due in November in Brussels. The agenda of the meeting also includes the implementation of the EU global defence strategy, as well as developments in the Horn of Africa, particularly in terms of politics and security. On the sidelines of the Council meeting, a working lunch is held by the “Friends of Ukraine Group, which includes the EU foreign ministers and their Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin.

FRANCE – The new President of France, the centrist Emmanuel Macron, sworn in on Sunday, is to appoint a prime minister who should announce the names in his new cabinet on Tuesday. Macron has kept the name of the next prime minister under veils, but according to the media the most likely to be nominated is the mayor of the western French port-city of Le Havre, Édouard Philippe. Also today, Macron has a meeting in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel, with whom, commentators say, he will try to rebuild the French-German tandem as a driving engine of EU development. According to Radio Romanias correspondent in Paris, the agenda of talks includes topics like continental security, economy, investments and social protection.

CANNES – The Romanian director, script writer and producer Cristian Mungiu is the president of Cinéfondation and the short-reel section in the 70th Cannes Film Festival due on May 17-28. A foremost representative of the “Romanian new wave, Cristian Mungiu has a long-standing tradition of being a part of the Cannes Festival. After the Palme dOr won for his second feature film, “4, 3, 2, he was also awarded for the script of “Beyond the Hills and for directing “Baccalaureate. In related news, 200 minutes of Romanian shorts will be presented this year in Cannes, as part of a programme called “Romanian Short Waves. Another Romanian director, Alexander Nanau, who signed the photography for Sonia Kronlunds “Nothingwood, will take part in the screening of the film in the “Quinzaine des réalisateurs section.

TENNIS – The Rome tennis tournament, with 2.7 million US dollars in total prize money, begins today, with Romanian players also taking part. Irina Begu (44 WTA) is up for a difficult start, with a match against Latvias Anastasija Sevastova (18 WTA), while Monica Niculescu (48 WTA) will also be taking on a top player, the Dutch Kiki Bertens (20 WTA). After having recently won the Madrid tournament for the second running year, Simona Halep (4 WTA) will go straight into the second round in Rome, to play the winner of the match pitting the German Laura Siegemund (35 WTA) against the Japanese Naomi Osaka (49 WTA). Monica Niculescu is also taking part in the doubles event, together with Christina McHale of the US, against the pair made up of Sara Errani and Martina Trevisan of Italy. In the mens doubles, Horia Tecău of Romania and the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer play today against the Americans John Isner and Jack Sock, while Florin Mergea and the Pakistani Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi will play against Tommy Haas of Germany / Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)