The Week in Review (2-9 September)

A round-up of the weeks main stories in Romania.

Corina Cristea, 09.09.2017, 13:59

Romanian PM
presented the state of economy before Parliament

VF Upon the request
of the National Liberal Party, the main opposition party in Romania, the Social
Democrat PM Mihai Tudose presented the state of Romania’s economy before
Parliament. The prime minister has explained that Romania has reported a 5.8%
economic growth in 2017, the biggest in Europe, and that investments are higher
than in 2016. More jobs have been created in the private sector and all the
measures adopted at budgetary and financial levels have taken into account
Romania’s external commitments. Mihai Tudose has also recalled that salaries
and pensions have been increased.

The Social Democrats
say the current government is investing in development, based on a programme
that provides a very realistic outlook on the reforms to be implemented in the
coming years. The opposition has nevertheless contested the way in which the
government is managing the country’s economy. They claim the country’s real
economic situation is different from that presented by the Social Democrats and
that the government is not going to comply with a series of measures included
in the governing programme in order to be able to observe the budget deficit
level to which it has committed itself.

European
Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu visits Bucharest

The European
Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, has this week visited
Bucharest. She has drawn attention that Romania should speed up the pace of
preparing and implementing certain projects. She has also brought good news
related to the degree of European funds absorption, which is set to increase.
She has confirmed that European money has started coming to Romania:

Accreditation has
been given to all the authorities in charge of managing and controlling the
budget worth 23 billion euros that has been allotted to Romania for the period
2014-2020. This summer, the European Commision has already reimbursed 95
million euros to Romania, for initiatives, for small and medium sized
enterprises and for technical assistance. We are still analysing requests for
payment worth 350 million euros which are to be disbursed as soon as possible.

By the end of the
year Romania might attract development and cohesion funds worth one billion
euros, Commissioner Corina Cretu added.

Romania’s defence
minister resigns

The Social Democrat
Defence Minister Adrian Tutuianu has this week submitted his resignation from
the government coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. His resignation was requested by the PM
Mihai Tudose after the Defence Ministry issued a communiqué, upon the request
of journalists, according to which the employees of the Romanian Defence Ministry
were to receive only their salaries on September 15, without the meal vouchers
and the money for rent, and the ministry was no longer paying their social
security contributions and the income tax to the state budget. The situation
was to be settled by September 25 when arrears were to be paid off. The press
and the rightwing opposition concluded that the state had run out of money for
the military’s salaries. The prime minister has blamed minister Tutuianu for
communication failure:

We are talking
about an important element of national security, we are talking about Romania’s
army, Romania being a NATO member. It’s unacceptable to allow such messages to
emerge in the press.

The Prime Minister
has given assurances that the state budget has enough money for the Defence
Ministry, which has been allotted 2% of the GDP. However, economic analysts
fear that the situation at the Defence Ministry might be indicative of a real
lack of funds despite record economic growth figures.

Romanian
authorities react to the new education law passed by the Ukrainian Parliament

The Romanian Foreign
Ministry views with concern the new Education Law passed on September 5 by the
Ukrainian Parliament, considering that it poses a threat to education in the
national minorities’ languages. The officials of the Ministry for the Romanians
Abroad are following with equal concern the latest legislative developments in
Ukraine, which provide for the gradual introduction of a new education system
and for the replacement of the minorities’ mother tongues with the Ukrainian
language in high schools and faculties. In this context, the Minister for the
Romanians Abroad, Andreea Pastarnac, has reiterated the importance of education
in the minorities’ mother tongue, which is an essential element of identity for
the Romanian ethnic community in Ukraine. She added the Romanian community was
one of the most important ethnic communities in Ukraine from a cultural and
historical point of view. The issue of education in the mother tongue for the
ethnic Romanians in Ukraine will be a top priority on the agenda of the state
secretary Victor Micula, who will visit Kiev next week to discuss the situation
of the Romanian minority in Ukraine.

The George Enescu
International Festival continues in Bucharest and other cities of Romania

Until September 24,
Bucharest and 7 other big cities in Romania will be hosting concerts given by
over 3,000 famous Romanian and foreign musicians as part of the George Enescu
International Festival. The honorary president of this year’s edition is the
famed conductor Zubin Mehta while the festival’s artistic director is another
outstanding musician, conductor Vladimir Jurowski. George Enescu’s opera Oedipe
opened the festival, which this week has featured concerts by the Russian
National Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Romanian Youth
Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Lausanne Chamber
Orchestra. The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation is the only media
institution to broadcast live the concerts of the Enescu Festival. The festival
was first organised in 1958, then it was suspended by the Communist regime in
1971, to be resumed in December 1989. The festival is held every two years.