The Week in Review, August 7-13
A review of the headline-grabbing events of this past week in Romania
Corina Cristea, 13.08.2016, 11:59
The Funeral of Queen Anne of Romania
Romanians paid their respects this week to Queen Anne of Romania, who was buried on Saturday in Curtea de Arges, the first capital city of the medieval principality of Wallachia. Consort to Romanias last king, Michael I, Anne died on August 1, at the age of 92, in Switzerland. Her body was brought in the country on Tuesday night, first to Peles Castle in Sinaia and later to the Throne Hall of the Royal Palace in Bucharest. Severely ill himself, King Michael I was denied doctors permission to attend the funeral. Aged 94, the King visited his wife every day at the Swiss clinic where she was hospitalized before she died on August 1. Born in Paris in 1923, Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma met King Michael I in London, in 1947. Later the same year, on December 30, at a time when Romania was under Soviet occupation and run by a communist puppet government, the Sovereign was forced into exile. From the USA, Britain and Switzerland, he endorsed the activity of the Romanian National Committee, presented as a government in exile, although Western democracies never recognised it as such. King Michael was only permitted to return to Romania after the anti-communist Revolution of 1989, when he also regained his Romanian citizenship, withdrawn by communists, and part of his holdings. As a special ambassador, he lobbied for Romanias NATO accession in 2004 and EU accession in 2007.
Public budget adjustment in Bucharest
The Government of Romania Wednesday passed the first adjustment of the countrys public budgets this year. Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said that the adjustment was primarily designed to ensure funding for public policies, even though 2016 is an election year. The main beneficiaries of the adjustment are the ministries of healthcare, education and labour. Public healthcare received an additional 125 million euros, to cover the increased salaries of medical personnel. Additional money will also be channelled into healthcare programmes or into subsidizing medication. Another priority in the field is to fight hospital-acquired infections. In public education, the extra 220 million euros will cover the increased or adjusted salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff in under-graduate and graduate education, as well as a number of programmes addressing students. The Labour Ministry received an extra 620 million euros for the payment of social security benefits.
Agreement in public healthcare
In Bucharest, representatives of doctors, the Healthcare Minister Vlad Voiculescu and the Labour Minister Dragos Paslaru signed a joint statement that describes the decision to raise salaries and extra-hour bonuses starting on October 1 as a major step in bringing wages in the sector to normal levels. The Healthcare Minister says the measure is intended to correct the salary scheme in the sector, to make working hours more flexible and the healthcare system as a whole more efficient. The fair remuneration of extra-hours will require nearly 22 million euros from the budget, and will be accompanied by a set of measures aimed at eliminating inefficient spending, including, among other things, in public procurement. The new decisions come several days after healthcare staff salaries were raised, on August 1. Rises ranging between 70 and 200 euros were given to 163,000 employees.
Former central bank vice-governor, under pre-trial arrest
A former deputy governor of the National Bank of Romania, Bogdan Olteanu, was arrested on Friday for 16 days, under a Supreme Court order. He had been previously placed under house arrest, in an investigation in which he is accused of influence peddling. According to the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, between July and November 2008, when he was the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, appointed by the National Liberal Party, he requested and received from a businessman 1 million euros and election campaign support, in exchange for the appointment of a specific person as Danube Delta Governor. Bodgan Olteanu is the first National Bank official ever detained by prosecutors. The central bank explained that the investigation targeted the period before Bogdan Olteanu became a deputy governor, in 2009.
Inflation report issued in Romania
The National Bank of Romania forecasts an inflation rate of negative 0.4% for the end of this year, one per cent below the 0.6% estimate made in May, according to the Quarterly Inflation Report presented this week by the central bank governor Mugur Isarescu. For the end of next year, the National Bank forecasts a 2% inflation rate, also lower than the 2.7% figure included in the May report. For 2018, the central bank Governor expects the inflation rate to be above the 2.5% target.
