November 27, 2017 UPDATE

President Klaus Iohannis on Monday promulgated law on the purchase of Patriot missile systems, Romanias Higher Defense Council meets on Tuesday

Newsroom, 27.11.2017, 19:46

Patriot — Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis on Monday promulgated the law on the purchase of Patriot missile systems. The law was adopted last Tuesday by the Chamber of Deputies. The defense minister Mihai Fifor stated last week that the signing of the sales contract with the US government would most probably take place by December 1. Romania is set to purchase 7 Patriot missile systems worth 3.9 billion dollars without VAT. The first such system amounting to almost 765 million dollars is to be purchased by the end of the year.

Higher Defense Council — Romania’s Higher Defense Council is meeting on Tuesday in Bucharest under the chairmanship of President Klaus Iohannis. According to the presidential administration, the meeting will focus on the plan regarding the armed forces to be sent on missions outside Romania in 2018 and the stage of implementation of the decisions made at the NATO summit held in Warsaw. Other topics under discussion will be the measures Romania adopted for enforcing the sanctions set up at international level (October 2016 — September 2017) and the action plan of the Higher Defense Council for 2018. The meeting will also tackle issues of interest to national security.

Opposition — The main opposition party in Romania, the Liberal Party, announced they would contest at the Constitutional Court the setting up of the special parliamentary committee for the justice laws. The Liberals motivate their gesture claiming that the MPs in the governing coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats rejected the proposal to convey to the Venice Commission a unitary request on behalf of the Romanian Parliament to analyze the modifications brought to the justice laws. The special committee continued its activity on Monday. Starting last week, they have been working daily so that the new legislative proposals should be voted in the plenum of Parliament before Christmas. The opposition has contested both the committee’s accelerated working schedule and many of the amendments already adopted. Some of the amendments refer to the fact that the president of Romania will no longer be able to refuse the appointments made to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, to the reintroduction of the psychological assessment for magistrates and to the fact that judges and prosecutors will no longer be allowed to make defamatory declarations against other institutions. Discontented with the changes to the justice laws, tens of thousand of people protested in Bucharest and other cities of Romania.

Vienna — Vienna is hosting as of Monday, under the OSCE aegis, a new round of negotiations between the Moldovan authorities and the pro-Russian separatists in Transdniester (east). According to Radio Romania’s correspondents in Chisinau the meeting gathers representatives of the two sides as well as of the mediators and observers in the negotiations, namely Russia, Ukraine, the US and the EU. lmost 765 million dollars is to be purchased by the end of the year.

Budapest — The Chinese PM Li Keqiang announced Monday in Budapest that China would grant funds worth more than 3 billion dollars for development and investment projects in Central and Eastern Europe. He participated in the 6th summit of the heads of government from the Central and East European countries, held in a so-called ‘16+1’ cooperation format. High on the agenda of the summit were economic, financial and commercial relations. In 2013 Romanian hosted such a meeting in the ‘16+1’ cooperation format and launched a new mechanism for cooperation in the energy field between the participating countries.

Bucharest — Most Romanians (57%) continue to trust the European Union, 10 years after accession, shows an opinion survey presented on Monday by the European Commission Representation in Bucharest. According to the poll 54% of Romanians believe that their voice is heard in the EU. Romanians also believe that the main advantage of accession is the opportunity to find a job in a EU member state while the main disadvantage is the drop in the purchasing power. The survey also shows that Romanians believe that the EU’s strengths are the good relations between states, the observance of human rights, democracy and the rule of law and the capacity to promote peace and democracy beyond its borders.

Labour — Companies in Romania should first and foremost hire Romanian citizens, including those aboard, with the help of European money and governmental programs- said the labor minister Lia Olguţa Vasilescu. Attending a debate on the crisis of the labor force in Romania held Monday in Bucharest minister Vasilescu said there was a European directive meant to protect the internal work force within the EU, a directive that Romania will stick to. She added that Romania is currently faced with a labor force deficit and that many companies have recently asked the government to open the borders to foreign workers. According to minister Vasilescu the government is open to any idea meant to attract Romanians from abroad back home. There are 3 million Romanians working abroad and salaries in Romania have started to grow. In another development, also on Monday the labor minister announced that the executive would approve in this week’s session the rise of the minimum salary to almost 400 euros.

Handball — Romania’s national women’s handball team are preparing for their debut, this week, in the World Championship hosted by Germany. On Saturday the Romanian handballers will take on the team of Paraguay in Trier (in the west). Romania will play in Group A alongside France, Spain, Slovenia, Angola and Paraguay. At the previous Championship in 2015 Romania won the bronze medal, being the only team that participated in all the 22 editions of the World Championship organized so far. (translation by L. Simion)