November 1, 2016 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 01.11.2016, 12:01

STRIKE The Romanian Trade Union Federation Sanitas
has suspended the planned all-out strike in Romanian hospitals. Leaders of the
member trade unions have made the decision following promises that next week
Parliament will endorse salary rises in the health-care system. The salary
increase measures adopted by the labour and budget committees of the Chamber of
Deputies are to be voted upon in plenary session next week. According to the
new provisions, salaries in education and
health-care would increase by 15% on average, with a budget impact of
some 300 million Euros.

MEASURES The Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos
believes the measures adopted by Parliament in the past months concerning pay
rises in various sectors of the economy, amounting to 2 billion lei, which is
over 1% of the GDP, might impact the budget significantly. They could either
increase the deficit, which might prove disastrous for Romania, or trigger a
drop in investments. Ciolos has stated that such pay rises for certain
categories of employees are causing more imbalances, without actually solving
the salary issue. The Prime Minister’s statements came after MPs on Monday had
endorsed measures to increase the salaries of certain categories of employees
in the country’s healthcare system and education. The Labour Minister Dragos
Paslaru has described the measures as being driven by electoral purposes only.

PERFORMANCE Attending in Bucharest the event celebrating 25 years of
partnership with the World Bank, Romania’s president Klaus
Iohannis has stated that there are areas where the country is still struggling
with under-performing and incomplete processes. According to the Romanian head
of state, Romania could capitalize better on the assistance
provided by international institutions such as the World Bank. The WB-Romania
partnership is the expression of a wide-range cooperation in various social and
economic fields; it also reflects the complex evolution of the WB’s role with
regard to Romania’s reform agenda, Iohannis has added. He has also stated that
ongoing reforms are essential for sustainable development and economic growth.
Iohannis has also pointed out that reforms in public and fiscal administration
are among Romania’s key priorities.

RADIO ROMANIA Representatives of the Romanian Public Radio held a
meeting with the Ombudsman Victor Ciorbea on Tuesday, on the elimination of the
TV-radio license fee, endorsed by Parliament last week, upon a proposal set
forth by the Social Democratic Party. The delegation stated that a plea of non-compliance
with the constitution should be formulated, as the TV-radio fee is the main
source of funding for the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation, and its
elimination changes radically the autonomous and independent existence of the
public media services. Radio Romania was established 88 years ago. It has three
national and several regional channels, as well as an international channel
broadcasting in ten languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German,
Italian, Serbian, Spanish, Russian and Ukrainian, as well as in Romanian and
the Aromanian dialect.

QUAKE Italy has once again been rocked by an
earthquake, measuring 4.7 degrees on the Richter scale. The quake’s epicentre
was in Macerata, the same region that saw the devastating quake of August this
year. Another 130 aftershocks of the Sunday’s earthquake were reported during
the night. 40 thousand people have been left without shelter after the
earthquakes of the past days, including 200 Romanian citizens. A rapid-response
team of the Romanian embassy on Monday went to the affected region to provide
consular assistance. There are no Romanian citizens in hospitals and most of
those who cannot return to their homes have been offered accommodation in
hotels in the Umbria region. According to a communiqué by the Foreign Ministry
in Bucharest, four Romanians have asked for assistance to return to the country.
The Romanian embassy has also called on the Italian authorities to investigate
the case of a Romanian who died 24 hours after Sunday’s earthquake.

DRILL Over November 1st and 12th Romanian troops are
participating together with their US allies in Patriot Shock V, a joint drill
held at the Capul Midia Shooting Range in Constanta, south-eastern Romania.
According to sources with the Romanian Defence Ministry, Patriot Shock V is a
joint drill of tactical level involving ground troops and surface-to-air
missile installations. The drill’s objectives are planning and fighting air
strikes as well as checking on the interoperability of command-control units
of the two surface-to-air structures, Patriot and Hawk PIP lll.