The Week in Review December 6-12
A review of the most important events that have taken place in Romania this past week
Florentin Căpitănescu, 12.12.2015, 14:00
David Cameron pays a visit to Bucharest
Bucharest and London boast important bilateral relations and the two sides want to strengthen and develop this partnership, said Romanias President Klaus Iohannis after the talks he held with the visiting British Prime Minister, David Cameron. The Romanian President said the military and security dimension of bilateral cooperation had a major role, in a complex context marked by challenges. The economic side of the relationship between Romania and Great Britain was also tackled during the talks.
President Iohannis underlined that trade exchanges last year reached the highest level so far. In turn, the British PM Cameron said that Romanians have a valuable contribution to the development of Great Britain in important domain such as finances, science and medicine. However he highlighted what he called the pressure put by the free movement of labour force on the public services in the UK. In turn, the Romanian Prime Minister, Dacian Ciolos, said upon his meeting with his British counterpart, that most Romanians who work in Great Britain are paying their taxes.
The state and social security budget
For the new technocratic government in Bucharest led by Dacian Ciolos the state and social security budgets for 2016 are a major challenge. If parliamentary parties have generally agreed with the draft budget, the representatives of civil society expressed their discontent with being consulted rather late. Institutions such as the Fiscal Council also criticized certain infringements of the fiscal rules.
According to the bill proposed by the Ciolos cabinet, the Education and Healthcare Ministries will receive additional money, alongside the Interior, Defense and European Funds Ministries. Less money will be channeled towards the Labour Ministry. The budget is based on a deficit of 3% of the GDP, the maximum threshold agreed upon with the EU, and on an economic growth rate of 4.1%. The two draft budgets have already been forwarded to Parliament, which, according to the established timetable, is to give its verdict next week.
Important decisions by the Supreme Council of National Defense
As many as 1,200 Romanian soldiers and over 1,500 gendarmes will participate in various NATO, EU, the OSCE and UN missions abroad in 2016. The decision was made by Romanias Supreme Defense Council, in a meeting chaired by president Klaus Iohannis and attended, for the first time, by the ministers of the new government. On the occasion, they approved the Guide of the National Strategy for the Countrys Defense for 2015- 2019 and the Intelligence Strategy of the Romanian Intelligence Service, valid for the same period of time. Also, according to the Presidential Administration, the members of the Supreme National Defense Council have ascertained that the line Romanian institutions applied the sanctions set up at international level between October 2014- September 2015.
The anti-corruption fight continues
The National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) has registered the highest credibility rate among the population thanks to its relentless fight against corruption of the last years. This week the DNA has opened a new case related to illegal retrocession, a common crime, that brought huge revenues to those involved in the case, among whom two public figures: journalist Dan Andronic, the director of the well known post-Communist daily paper, “Evenimentul Zilei, and the controversial businessman Remus Truica. In the early 2000, the latter was the head of the chancellery of the then PM Adrian Nastase, himself sentenced to prison on corruption charges. Prosecutors accuse the abovementioned of several acts of corruption and of setting up a criminal group to deal in illegal retrocession.
The estimated damage in this case exceeds 136 million euros. In another DNA case, the High Court of Cassation and Justice has decided this week that the Liberal MPs Ioan Oltean, a veteran of post-Communist politics and Catalin Teodorescu, alongside the former head of the National Authority for the Restitution of Property, Crinuta Dumitrean, should be subject to legal restrictions pending trial. They are being investigated in a case related to illegal compensations worth more than 20 million euros, granted to a businessman by the National Authority for the Restitution of Property.
Demography on a downward trend
In 2014, Romanias population dropped under the threshold of 20 million – a level similar to that reported in mid 1960s. According to the National Institute for Statistics, last year Romanias population dropped by 80 thousand people, let alone the 40 thousand citizens who migrated. Such a great number of people is equivalent to the disappearance of two small towns every year. The president of the National Institute for Statistics, Tudorel Andrei, claims that until 2013 the number of population was reduced especially due to migration. In the years to come the main cause of the demographic downward trend is expected to be the low birthrate.
(Translated by: Lacramioara Simion; Edited by: Diana Vijeu)
