The Week in Review December 1-5

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România Internațional, 06.12.2014, 12:51

Budget adjustment in Bucharest

The government in Bucharest has operated a third budget adjustment for this year. Most of the money goes to payments for entitlements earned by state employees in court. The additional amounts also go to cover the debts that some local authorities have towards hospitals, as well as for damages granted by the National Authority for the Restitution of Property. Minister delegate for budget Darius Valcov said that for 2015 the budget is thus exempt from paying over one billion Euro:

“Both the IMF and the EC support the adjustment project, appreciating the fact that the government managed to make payments ahead of time, for various purposes, creating some leeway for the fiscal year 2015.”

For the first time, state and local budget debts will be balanced out, while the general consolidated budget deficit will be within the 2.2% target. The Romanian authorities have announced substantial increases in the budget next year for several sectors, among them Health, Education and Transportation. According to Minister Valcov, the draft budget for 2015 does not provide for increases in taxation, an the emphasis will be on investments from European funds.

Decisions regarding the price of natural gas

Minister delegate for energy Razvan Nicolescu said that prices for energy, especially domestic natural gas for home consumption won’t go up on 1 January. Nicolescu said that in the last few days there has been a lot of speculation regarding energy prices, mainly natural gas, and gave assurances that the price of natural gas produced in Romania will not increase, at least in the first six months of next year. A new timeline for liberalization will be issued for 1 July 2015- 1 July 2021, taking into account the growing trend in the price of fuel in the region, as well as the longer period of time for alignment agreed upon with international financial institution, as announced by the Energy Department. The total liberalization of the natural gas market, including that for home consumption, was scheduled for 31 December 2018. Recently, however, Parliament in Bucharest has voted to extend this deadline by two and a half years.

The Anti-Corruption Directorate takes over the case of voting abroad

The Anti-Corruption Directorate took over the investigation into voting abroad from the General Prosecutor’s Office. The decision was made when anti-corruption prosecutors filed a request to this end, claiming that the investigation may fall under their jurisdiction. In the recent presidential elections in Romania, thousands of Romanians could not vote because of bad organization, which led to two consecutive foreign ministers resigning. Two days from the second round of elections, the General Prosecutor’s Office started an investigation into the events, not responsible parties. One of the situations under investigation is the fact that, between the two rounds of elections, it was claimed that there was no legal ground for opening additional polling stations. On November 29, president elect Klaus Iohannis posted on a social network that he expected a speedy resolution to this investigation. Asked for comments on the transfer of the investigation from the General Prosecutor’s Office to the Anti-Corruption Directorate, PM Victor Ponta said that the judiciary had to carry out its duties.

Romanian Foreign Minister Aurescu talks to US State Secretary John Kerry

Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu held talks on Thursday with US Secretary of State John Kerry, on the situation in the region, the elections in the Republic of Moldova, as well as the strategic partnership with the US, which Romania claims in a press release is at the core of its foreign policy. The two officials, meeting at the OSCE Ministerial Council, underlined the importance of Moldova putting together a government as soon as possible. Also on Thursday, Hoyt Yee, an official with the State Department in charge of Europe and Asia, said in an exclusive interview with Radio Romania’s Washington correspondent that his country looked forward to working with president elect Klaus Iohannis, and that the US saluted Romania’s contribution to security in the region. According to authorities in Bucharest, Romania and the US will soon see through the most important security project so far, the anti-ballistic missile shield, with elements in Romania.

Romania gets ranked for corruption

For the second year in a row, Romania was ranked 69th in terms of corruption in the annual report issued by Transparency International, which includes 175 countries. Romania gets 43 points in that ranking, which makes it one of the most corrupt countries in the EU, on a par with Bulgaria, Italy and Greece. The lowest ranking country in Europe is Ukraine, with 26 points, in terms of the perception of corruption. The highest ranking is Denmark, with 92 points out of 100, making it the least corrupt country in the world within this study.