September 24-28

A roundup of the week's main stories

Corina Cristea, 29.09.2018, 10:21

President Klaus Iohannis at the UN

President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday during the general debate
at the UN General Assembly that Romania is ready to strengthen the EU-UN partnership
during its presidency of the EU Council, in the first half of 2019. When I speak about engagement
I don’t just mean politicians and diplomats. We have to reach out to our younger
people, representatives of civil society, journalists, business people. We need
them all for the cause of multilateralism and global leadership, the Romanian President has said. Klaus
Iohannis has also militated for Romania’s getting elected as a non-permanent
member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 period. In the speech delivered
during the UN General Assembly, the president has said peace, development and
justice are the basis of the country’s multilateral strategy. President Klaus
Iohannis has given assurances that Romania will be a responsible partner in promoting
the common agenda of the UN. He has also said that the UN member states have
the duty to better explain to their citizens what the current challenges to
peace, social equitability and sustainability are and to talk about the role
played by the UN in tackling them.

The Romanian Prime Minister’s visit to Brussels

Romanian
Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă has paid a visit to Brussels this week, where
she presented the political situation in Romania to the leaders of the main
political groups in the European Parliament. The talks were held ahead of a debate
in the European Parliament, scheduled for next week, on the August 10
anti-governmental protest in Bucharest, marked by the gendarmes’ violent
intervention. The Prime Minister has mentioned the economic and social measures
that have been taken, that were meant to do social justice, defend the citizens’
rights and liberties and balance the state powers, reads a communiqué issued by
the Government. Referring to the reforms in the field of justice, the Prime
Minister showed they were aimed at harmonising the Romanian legal system with
European practices and recommendations made by the Venice Commission. The Prime
Minister has presented the government’s stand in order to make our European
partners clearly understand that the Social-Democratic government takes
justified decisions, in agreement with the domestic legislation and the
European values, MEP Gabriela Zoană said fresh from the debates in the European
Parliament. Euractiv recalls however that the European Social-Democrats have
reproached Prime Minister Dăncilă that the ruling Social Democratic Party is
distancing itself from the European progressive line. According to the same
source, Socialist MEPs have asked for more clarity on a series of issues, from
major corruption cases to the referendum of the 6th and 7th
of October, when Romanian voters are expected to say if they agree to revise
the country’s Constitution to redefine the concept of family as being based on
the marriage between a man and a woman. Euroactiv cites a Socialist MEP who
recalls that the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union states
explicitly that people have the right to get married without being discriminated
against based on their sexual orientation. In a Twitter post following talks
with the Romanian Prime Minister, the leader of the European People’s Party
Manfred Weber said he was worried about the situation in Romania, saying the
independence of the judicial system is under pressure.

Government decisions

The government has adopted this week an emergency decree to amend the
legislation regulating the insolvency procedure. The new provisions are aimed at
halting certain abusive practices, such as repeated insolvency, and to ensure
equal chances for the development of businesses. More than 6,000 companies
employing over 64,000 people are in insolvency at the moment in Romania, which
called for urgent measures, says the Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici. The
latter also said that the changes were the result of a series of dysfunctions
that have appeared during the application of the previous versions of the
insolvency law. The new emergency order provides for the conversion of the
debts owed by companies into shares that will be taken over by the state. The
tax authority will come up with a clear procedure in this regard, the finance
minister has said. The business community has criticized the changes, speaking
about masked nationalization. In another development, the government has
established that the Romanian language subject in primary schools with tuition
in the language of ethnic minorities will be taught by the form teacher.
Education Minister Valentin Popa, who was opposed to this decision, resigned on
Thursday. The change to the emergency decree was made at the request of the
Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, which has a collaboration
agreement with the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and
the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. The outgoing education minister said in
his resignation letter that the Romanian language and Romania are
non-negotiable and that all of the country’s children must speak the Romanian
language in order to have a chance to live and work in Romania.

(Translated by D. Vijeu & C. Mateescu)