September 7, 2015 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Bogdan Matei, 07.09.2015, 12:30
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta and Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici on Monday submitted to the Chamber of Deputies a bill on amending public procurement. The head of the executive says such a reform is needed because the present regulations cause unspent money to accrue without the possibility of being spent. Ponta has also called for MPs’ support in endorsing a new salary law for the budget sector and for the 2016 state budget. In another development, Valeriu Zgonea, head of the Chamber of Deputies, has pleaded for a draft law on postal voting to guarantee the Romanians from abroad the possibility of exercising this fundamental right. Debates on this issue were sparked off by the row in November 2014 after the small number of polling stations abroad had prevented thousands of Romanians from casting their ballot in the latest legislative election.
The concert given by famous San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas and the recital given by Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under the baton of Trevor Pinnock have been among the major events part of the George Enescu International Festival currently underway in Bucharest. Until September 20th, over 3 thousand top Romanian and foreign artists will have stepped onto the festival’s stage, one of the most prestigious classical music festivals in Europe. This edition will involve the participation of London Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of famous Romanian conductor Ion Marin. The festival includes scores of indoor and outdoor performances and concerts.
About two hundred people on Monday protested in front of the government building in the ex-soviet, Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova asking the government to step down and also calling for the resignation of president Nicolae Timofti, the prosecutor general and for snap election. The protest comes after the huge anti-government rally on Sunday staged by civil organisations, which was attended by tens of thousands. Among the protesters there were supporters of Moldova’s unification with neighboring Romania, as well as left-wing campaigners backing closer ties with Moscow. On Sunday night the latter tried to storm the Prosecutor General’s Office prompting the intervention of riot police. The credibility of pro-Western government in Chisinau was dealt a powerful blow by the mysterious disappearance of one billion euros from the republic’s banking system, a sum accounting for 15% of the country’s GDP.
Romania’s former sovereign King Mihai the 1st on Monday decided to withdraw the membership of the Order of the Crown of Romania in rank of officer from Bucharest’s mayor Sorin Oprescu. The king’s decision comes after a court in Bucharest has placed Oprescu under a 30-day preventive arrest on bribery charges. Some of the mayor’s staffers and members of his entourage have been detained in the same file. Oprescu’s detention has been predicted by pundits after heads of companies and departments subordinated to the city hall as well as one of his advisors have been arrested on corruption charges.
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Monday said Romania could not receive refugees over its accommodation facilities of 15 hundred places, of which 150-200 had already been occupied. The Prime Minister has pointed out that the countries, which are now recommending Romania to get more involved in solving the refugee crisis are those which have repeatedly postponed Romania’s Schengen accession. All the European countries and particularly those in the region must deal with the cause and not with the effect of the refugee crisis, Prime Minister Ponta said. Against the background of the latest speculations in the foreign press over Romania’s capability of accommodating between 4 and 7 thousand refugees, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has pleaded for the right of any European country to host as many refugees as it can accommodate. For Romania the president has mentioned a number close to that announced by the Prime Minister, namely 1785.
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Monday announced that he had promulgated the new Fiscal Code. Returned to Parliament for a new round of debates and endorsed by MPs last week, the new law provides for a 20% VAT cut due to come into effect as of January 1st and of 19% in 2017. The elimination of a duty on special constructions and the super-excise on fuel has also been postponed for January 1st 2017, when the tax on dividends is expected to go down from 16 to 5%. The code also provides for higher taxes on unmanaged plots within the built-up area beginning January 2016.
