September 27, 2017 UPDATE

Click here for a round-up of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 27.09.2017, 19:09

CORRUPTION – Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis has stated that the ministers who are being investigated in the so-called “Belina case, namely the Social Democrats Rovana Plumb and Sevil Shhaideh, should have resigned or should have been sacked. The head of state has criticized the ruling Social Democratic Party for its decision to support the two ministers, who four years ago allegedly transferred an island and an arm of the Danube from state property into the property of Teleorman County. The transfer was illegal. President Iohannis has also voiced worries over the planned changes in the judiciary laws, announced by the line minister Tudorel Toader. Harshly criticized by civil society and the media, Toader’s draft stipulates, among other things, that appointing the heads of the National Anti-corruption Directorate and of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism will no longer be the president’s prerogatives. Also, under the new law, Judiciary Inspection would be part of the Ministry of Justice, and the seniority threshold for the promotion of magistrates will be set higher. Early this year, Government’s attempt to amend, under an emergency decree, the criminal codes, triggered large-scale protests across the country and in the Diaspora. Hundreds of thousands of Romanians took to the streets, accusing the ruling party of trying to exempt from criminal liability top-level politicians and decision-makers.

MINORITY RIGHTS – The Romanian education minister, Liviu Pop, underlined in Kiev on Wednesday, during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Lilia Grinevich, that the rights of the ethnic Romanians in Ukraine should not be affected by the new education law in the neighbouring country. Pop recalled that education in the Romanian language in Ukraine has a tradition of over 200 years. He reiterated Bucharests request for the neighbouring country to call for the opinion of the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe and of the OSCE High Commissioner for Minorities on the new law, which infringes upon the rights of the ethnic Romanian minority in Ukraine to study in the native language. These high level demarches are being made after on Monday, Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, promulgated a law which drastically limits education in the languages of the ethnic minorities. On Wednesday, the Ukrainian Embassy in Bucharest said in a communiqué that the adoption of the new education law will not lead to the closing down of education institutions with teaching in the languages of the ethnic minorities in that country. According to the same source, Ukraine will send the law to the council of Europe for expertise. The approximately 500 thousand Romanians living in Ukraine make up the second largest ethnic community in the country, after the Russian one.

SCHENGEN ACCESSION– The European Commission has called on the EU Council to include Bulgaria and Romania in the Schengen area, the EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos told a press conference given in Brussels on Wednesday. Avramopoulos underlined that the two countries rapid accession to the free movement area will contribute to improving the unions policy on migration and to tightening security at EU level. The Commissioner underlined that the two countries have proven their capacity to defend the EUs external borders. We recall that the Schengen area is currently made up of 22 of the 28 EU member states. Also on Wednesday, the European Commission proposed a change of the Schengen regulations, providing for the reintroduction of national border controls during a time span of up to 3 years, in exceptional cases, to cope with such threats as terrorism. Currently, the reintroduction of controls in cases of severe threat to a countrys public order or security cant exceed six months, or in exceptional situations, two years, in case of chaos situations on the EUs external borders, such as that caused by the migrant crisis.

PUBLIC MEDIA SERVICES – The Romanian Parliament on Wednesday validated the new managing board of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation and elected, with a majority of votes, Mr. Georgica Severin for the position of President Director General of the public radio service. He has been interim director general since April 2017. During hearings in the culture committees, Severin said his objectives include the modernisation of the institution from a technological point of view, maintaining high audience ratings and clarifying the legislative framework regulating the functioning of the public radio service. Also, Parliament validated on Wednesday, with a majority of votes Ms. Doina Gradea for the position of interim director general of the Public Television Corporation, for a maximum mandate of six months.

TRADE UNION PROTESTS – The Romanian health federation Solidaritatea Sanitara (Solidarity for Health) has announced a string of protests planned for Thursday and Friday. The participants will picket the head offices of the Labour, Justice and Health Ministries, following the Government’s announced intention to change the legal provisions regarding the basic salary. According to trade unionists, the change would trigger massive drops in the incomes of most employees in the health-care sector, of up to 60%, as of January 1, 2018. In another move, hundreds of people continued their protests organised by the Cartel Alfa National Trade union Confederation across Romania, after the authorities announced that the payment of social contributions would become employees’ responsibility. Trade unionists say that transferring the responsibility of paying social contributions from employers to employees will lead to a drop in the net incomes, the dismantling of the unemployment fund and lower contributions to the pension fund. The started picketing public institutions on Monday and on October 4th, trade unions will gather for a large protest in Bucharest.

CORRUPTION – Former Romanian communication minister Gabriel Sandu, the businessmen Dinu Pescariu and Claudiu Florica as well as the former head of Microsoft Romania, Calin Tatomir, have been sent to court on Wednesday by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate in a new case, for having brought prejudice to the state by purchasing Microsoft licences, known as Microsoft III. The anti-corruption prosecutors accuse Gabriel Sandu, who was communication minister at the time (2009), of having favoured the company of the aforementioned businesspeople to sign a software contract with Microsoft, without organising a public tender. Prosecutors estimate the prejudice in the case at over 51 million Euros.

ARMY EQUIPMENT -The Secretary of State for Defense Policy Mircea Dusa and the Chief of Staff of the Romanian Air Forces, the Lieutenant – General Laurian Anastasof, on Wednesday attended at the air base in Monte Real, Portugal, the ceremony for the reception of three F16 updated fighters. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Defense Ministry, by taking over the three fighters, the Romanian Air Forces have finalized stage I in the process of introducing in the fleet F16 Fighting Falcon multi-role fighters. The first six out of the 12 strong squadron that makes the object of the Romanian – Portuguese agreement became part of the Romanian Air Forces capabilities in September 2016, and the next three in December last year.

COMPETITIVENESS – Romania ranks 68th in a classification of the most competitive countries in the world, 6 places lower than last year. In the same classification, Switzerland has maintained is leading position for the ninth year in a row, according to a report released by the World Economic Forum. Switzerland is followed in the rankings by the US, Singapore, the Netherlands and Germany. Ranking lower than Romania are countries such as Estonia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary. However, Romania is in a better position that Croatia and Greece. According to the report, the biggest issues facing Romania are taxation, bureaucracy, access to funding, a poorly educated labour force, corruption and the improper use of infrastructure.

TECHNICAL REVISION- The Galbeni short-wave transmitters, in Bacau County, relaying Radio Romania International broadcasts are undergoing technical revision on Thursday, September 28, between 09.00 and 17.00 hours, Bucharest time (06.00-14.00 GMT), according to schedule. In the aforementioned time span, you can listen to our broadcasts relayed by the Tiganesti transmitters on short-wave, online at www.rri.ro, or on mobile apps that can be downloaded from Google Play and App Store, as well as on TuneIn, your fixed and mobile phone (in Romania, the US, Italy, Spain, France and Great Britain).