September 8 – 14

a selection of the week's highlights in Romania

Florentin Căpitănescu, 14.09.2013, 12:00

The Rosia Montana project is submitted to Parliament for debate.

A special parliamentary committee meant to analyse the project of exploiting the silver and gold ore in Rosia Montana, central Romania, will be set up in Romania. The announcement has been made by the Senate Speaker, Crin Antonescu, fresh from the talks he has had with Prime Minister Victor Ponta. The Speaker of the Romanian Senate has also announced the emergency procedure regarding that controversial project, initiated in Parliament, will be withdrawn. The Canadian company, which holds the exploitation licence, has announced it will ask for huge damages from the Romanian state, if the exploitation as such does not receive the green light from parliament. The project has stirred tensions both within the centre-left ruling coalition, the Social Liberal Union, and at society level. Some 20 miners who militate for the resumption of mining activities at Rosia Montana, blocked themselves in the underground. In exchange, protests against the project have been staged in Bucharest and other big cities across the country for two weeks now. Ecologists and NGOs draw attention that the cyanide-based technical exploitation process runs the risk of irreversibly affecting the environment.

A law on stray dogs has been adopted by Parliament.

The Romanian Parliament has adopted a law which authorises the euthanasia of stray dogs, a solution which is actually backed by the majority of the population. The law stipulates that a stray dog can be claimed and adopted, free of charge, within 14 working days. At the end of this period, the local authorities can decide whether they extend the stay of the dogs in shelters or, in the absence of financial resources, euthanize the animals. This is not the only, but the ultimate solution. Only aggressive dogs and those incurably ill are euthanized right away. Furthermore, those who take the animals out of shelters should sign a declaration, committing themselves to observing all care and feeding norms. In case they don’t want to keep the dogs any longer, they should hand over the animals to the authorities. Parliament has adopted the law against the backdrop of heated public debates after a four-year old boy who was bitten to death by stray dogs, near a park in Bucharest. It is estimated that approximately 65,000 stray dogs are roaming the streets of Bucharest.

Romanian labour minister visits Belgium and the Netherlands.

Romanian labour minister Mariana Campeanu has recently visited the Netherlands and Belgium ahead of the opening of these countries’ labour markets to the Romanian workers on January 1st 2014. The Romanian official attended a high-level meeting on the free movement of labour in the EU staged by the Dutch ministry of Social Affairs and Employment in the Hague. Officials of the two countries have agreed to find solutions, to make sure that the opening of the labour market will not create problems. Then Romania and Belgium signed a bilateral cooperation agreement in the field of work and social protection. Mariana Campeanu said the agreement was aimed at preventing illegal employment and any discrimination against the Romanians who work in Belgium.

After the EU entry of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, the citizens of these two states were temporarily denied access to certain EU countries, including Belgium and the Netherlands. These restrictions are to be automatically and irrevocably lifted on December the 31st 2013.

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Romania has signed a new agreemnt with the IMF.

The Romanian government has sent a letter of intent to the International Monetary Fund for a new precautionary agreement. The authorities in Bucharest and the IMF and the European Commission delegation reached a technical agreement in July over the new precautionary accord of four-billion euros due to span over two years. The stand-by agreement is to be analyzed by the IMF board this autumn. Prime Minister Ponta said the only tax rises agreed upon as part of the new accord are increased excises for luxury products, aimed at offsetting the VAT deduction for bread, as well as the payment of health insurance by individuals who get income from rents. Next week, the Prime Minister is to brief Parliament on the new stand-by agreement with IMF.

Another wave of flooding sweeps over Romania.

Several people are reported to have lost their lives, while hundreds of others have been evacuated from some regions affected by heavy rainfalls and flooding in southeastern Romania. According to the authorities, hundreds of households in Galati county have been devastated by floods, while those evacuated from this region have been provided provisional shelter in schools and other buildings outside the affected areas. 8 counties in the east and southeast of the country have been affected by heavy rainfalls, which, in some areas, have reached record levels.

Romania has blown its chances of qualifying for World Cup 2014

Romania’s national football side has wasted its chance of qualifying for the World Cup playoffs after a two-nil home defeat against Turkey. The result has pushed Romania on the fourth position in the group’s standing. We recall that a three-nil win against Hungary, a couple of days before, had placed Romania on the second position in the standings. Now Romania depends on the results the Netherlands, which has already qualified for the World Cup, will obtain against Hungary and Turkey. Romania’s last participation in a World Cup was back in 1998.