September 14, 2018

The delegation of the Venice Commission continues meetings in Bucharest to evaluate the impact of changes brought to the Criminal Code; Romanian penitentiary employees resume protests

Bogdan Matei, 14.09.2018, 13:17

BUCHAREST — The delegation of the Venice Commission continues meetings in Bucharest with authorities and representatives of the judiciary to evaluate the impact of changes brought to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedural Code. On Thursday, experts from the commission were received by President Klaus Iohannis, and also met Justice Minister Tudorel Toader and representatives from Parliament, in order to prepare a statement to be adopted next month in plenary session.

BUCHAREST — The two European commissioners visiting Romania, Corina Cretu, in charge of regional development, and Phil Hogan, in charge of agriculture and rural development, were in the city of Cluj-Napoca, where they held a dialog with citizens. The theme of the discussion was A Modern Budget for a Stronger Union, which was attended by Romanian Agriculture Minister Petre Daea.

BUCHAREST — On Friday, the National Statistics Institute announced that Romania had 4.1 million pigs on May 1, 2018, over 357,000 less than on the same date in 2017. Since last summer, Romania has been swept by an epidemic of African swine fever, culling 230,000 pigs as a result. The epidemic has hit 207 localities in 12 counties. European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan said that he is working with the authorities to deal with the situation, considering that 75% of pigs raised in households in the EU are in Romania.

PENITENTIARIES — Employees in penitentiaries in Vaslui and Arad protested today against what they refer to as the forgotten promises made by Justice Minister Tudorel Toader. Late last year, the latter assured penitentiary employees that they would be paid overdue overtime, and that additional staff would be hired, neither issue being resolved so far. The Vaslui penitentiary employee union said that they would come to Bucharest on October 3 to join their colleagues across the country in protest. Their principal demands are the resignation of the minister, better working conditions, equal pay, and the issue of a penitentiary employee legal statute.

SOFIA — At the World Academic Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, all four Romanian teams competed on Friday in the semifinals and re-qualifications: the womens and mens coxed eight, as well as the two mens doubles. The number of crews that will compete reached six on Thursday, after the mens double team and the mens four team achieved qualification. Romania has nine crews in the competition in Plovdiv. The finals are held on Saturday and Sunday.

BUCHAREST — Romanias best ranked tennis player, Marius Copil, said he was confident ahead of the competition against Poland, in the third round of Group II of the Europe/ Africa area, as part of the Davis Cup games being played in Romania over the weekend in the city of Cluj-Napoca. Team captain Andrei Pavel, who is not competing, also selected for the team in the singles Bogdan Ionut Apostol and Adrian Ungur, and for the doubles Horia Tecau and Florin Mergea. The winning team will compete in Group I of the Davis Cup.

FLU — Four more people last week in Romania have succumbed to the West Nile virus, transmitted by mosquitoes. This brings the death toll since early August to 21, as announced by the Health Ministry. This bring the total death toll to 196. All 21 victims were already sick with various other ailments. Experts expect the number of infections to go down as colder weather comes in.