The Week in Review 16 – 22 May

A roundup of the week's major events

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Newsroom, 21.05.2016, 13:00

The diluted disinfectants scandal gets bigger

The most recent scandal in the Romanian health-care sector, concerning the use of diluted disinfectants in hospitals, has put health on the agenda of the countrys Higher Defense Council meeting of May 27th. In a press conference on Thursday, Romanias President Klaus Iohannis said he had made the decision as the scandal revealed the huge damage that corruption and indolence could cause in the public healthcare sector. The head of state also said the guilty people must the found and held accountable in court. The scandal broke out after a journalistic investigation revealed how the concentration of the disinfectants provided by the Hexi Pharma company to healthcare units across the country was ten times lower than the standard. The controls conducted in dozens of hospitals confirmed the conclusions of the journalistic investigation. The situation was so serious that in some hospitals surgery was halted for days. Overwhelmed by the situation, the Health Minister Patriciu Achimas Cadariu resigned. He was replaced by economist Vlad Voiculescu, a former cabinet director with the Finance Ministry. He has been involved in many charity events in the sector along the years. In the meantime, the Prosecutor Generals Office has started prosecution against Hexi Pharma, charged with foiling disease prevention and counterfeiting. Among other things, the office has to establish for how long such disinfectants were used, as the Romanian Intelligence Service says it has informed the legal beneficiaries– hospitals, the presidency, the Prime Minster, ministers, prefects and county councils – for years, about the poor quality of those substances.

The draft emergency ordinance on salaries in the budget sector enters public debate

The draft emergency ordinance on salaries in the public sector was launched for public debate on Tuesday. The main amendments concern a full restructuring of the pay system in healthcare and education and introducing a bonus system based on performance criteria, benefiting the two sectors employees as of January 1st, 2017. The draft also provides for eliminating salary gaps for equal positions and workloads within the same unit. The Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has stated that the bill will correct some of the systems flaws, but not all of them. According to the Labour Minister Dragos Paslaru, as a result of implementing these measures, over 1.2 million state employees will have bigger salaries, and nobodys salary will be cut. The president of the National Trade Union Bloc Dumitru Costin says, however, that only 400,000 out of the 1.2 million state employees will benefit from pay rises. Trade unions are unhappy with the bill and threaten with protests. Trade unionists from the education sector have announced they will hold a protest rally on June 1st, and those in the local public administration are threatening with strikes and boycotting local elections.

Romanias President Klaus Iohannis pays formal visit to Lithuania

Romanias President Klaus Iohannis has paid a two-day official visit to Lithuania, where he held talks with Vilnius officials about bilateral ties, migration, regional security and the common stand that the two countries will take at the NATO summit in Warsaw, due in July. After talks with his counterpart Dalia Grybauskaite, Klaus Iohannis said that Bucharest and Vilnius were linked by a strong bond, based on common interests, views and values. Romania and Lithuania have a similar stand regarding migration, as both countries believe that Europe must protect its borders, by strengthening control on the external borders, Iohannis also said. He stressed that imposing sanctions on the EU member countries that oppose the relocation of migrants was no solution to the issue. Also, the Romanian head of state said that a balanced approach was needed as regards the consolidation of NATOs eastern flank.

The Romanian Village Museum in Bucharest celebrates its 80th anniversary

The Romanian Village Museum in Bucharest, one of the oldest open-air museums in Europe and one of the most visited places in Romania, on Tuesday celebrated its 80th anniversary by inaugurating a new wing. Sociologist Dimitrie Gusti was the one who had the idea, back in the interwar period, to bring to the capital dozens of houses from all across Romania. Currently, the museum is host to 370 monuments and 60,000 heritage items. Conceived as a sociological museum, its mission is to present visitors with realities of village life, as it used to be or still is experienced by Romanian peasants. Some 500,000 Romanian and foreign tourists visit the museum every year.

CFR Cluj wins the 2016 Romanian Football Cup

CFR Cluj has won the 78th edition of the Romanian Football Cup. On Tuesday, on the National Arena, CFR Cluj defeated Dinamo Bucharest 5 – 4 after penalty shootouts. This is how the squad has put down a fourth cup on its record sheet. Dinamo, on the other hand, has 13 such trophies. The game had a special significance for Dinamo, given that, recently, its Cameroonian player Patrick Ekeng has died on the field because of a heart disease. The Romanian Football Cup is the second trophy awarded this season, after Astra Giurgiu won the champion title.