The Week in Review, May 17-23

A look at the headline-making events this past week

Newsroom, 23.05.2015, 14:37

Dispute over the Criminal Codes

The fight against corruption must be carried out with all engines on, because this scourge hinders Romania’s development, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis has recently stated. He has also said he very much considers challenging at the Constitutional Court the amendments brought by Parliament to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, because Romania is now engaged in a harsh fight against corruption and changing these laws now is not at all opportune.

Klaus Iohannis: “ I cannot accept the MPs bringing changes to these laws for their own benefit. Therefore, if they get to the promulgation stage, they will not pass through.”

Although criticized, the amendments to the Criminal and the Criminal Procedure Codes were adopted by the Romanian Senate, and they are now to be debated by the Chamber of Deputies, which is the decision-making forum. Among other things, the senators endorsed an amendment changing the phrase “reasonable suspicions” into “ solid evidence and clues” when decisions are made to retain, place under legal restrictions or hold people under home arrest or temporary police custody. According to another modification, the defendant who is detained or held in temporary police custody will only be handcuffed if they have committed a violent crime.

The Forestry Code adopted in its initial form

This week the MPs have voted the draft Forestry Code in its initial form. They have thus rejected president Klaus Iohannis’ request for reexamination of the law. The president had argued that those legislative interventions were arbitrarily limiting the activity of certain companies, which would in turn place some of them in an disadvantaged position, would negatively impact the world of competition and would create the premises for invoking the breach of the obligations that Romania assumed as member of the EU. Stating it was not allowed to file amendments, the liberal opposition too had sugested the reexamination of the Forest Code by the specialised commission, but their request was not accepted. Against massive illegal deforestations in Romania, also this week, the Government has passed a draft law on stricter monitoring measures for the exports and deliveries of unprocessed wood within the EU. The draft will be discussed by the two chambers of Parliament as a priority.

Social Measures

This week, the Romanian MPs have endorsed the law regarding the insolvency of natural persons who have their permanent domicile, assets and incomes in Romania. The law is aimed at supporting good-faith debtors who are just suffocated by debts. Therefore, priority is granted to debt reimbursement plans for periods of up to 5 years, not to seizures or foreclosures. In another development, the MPs also voted in favour of doubling child benefits for the over 3.5 million children in Romania. Most likely starting next month, as soon as the law is published in the Official Journal, the child benefit will be the equivalent of some 20 Euros. The measure was taken against the background of child benefits being the only sources of income for many disadvantaged families.

Victor Pontas Cabinet has a new minister

Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, on Wednesday signed the decree on appointing Mrs. Sevil Shhaideh as the new Regional Development and Public Administration minister. She is the proposal of the ruling Social Democratic Party and comes to replace Liviu Dragnea, who has resigned. Sevil Shhaideh has promised to continue the undergoing projects:

”I take over a ministry which has been organized by former minister Dragnea, we have a strategy, we have a vision and we have projects. The responsibility that my colleagues and I have is to continue these projects.”

Liviu Dragnea received a 1-year suspended jail sentence for masterminding a campaign to use bribes and forged ballot papers to swing an impeachment vote against the former president Traian Băsescu in 2012. Following his conviction, Dragnea submitted his resignation from the position of executive president of the Social Democratic Party, but the party’s vice presidents refused to acknowledge it. Consequently, the party’s leadership will meet next week to discuss the problem.

Prime Mnister Victor Ponta paid a visit to Chisinau

Prime ministers Victor Ponta and Chiril Gaburici, respectively, who met in Chisinau on Thursday, signed a memorandum of understanding between the Romanian and Moldovan governments on projects needed to interconnect the natural gas and electricity networks of the two countries. These projects will be a priority for the Romanian government this year.

Victor Ponta: “Romania has, at present, the capability and resources to invest in the Republic of Moldova. We only need to put into practice the official decisions made today.”

Romania has been and will continue to be an unconditional supporter of the EU accession of the Republic of Moldova, Victor Ponta has said. While the Romanian prime minister was in Chisinau, the Eastern Partnership summit was under way in Latvia’s capital city, Riga. The Eastern Partnership is a cooperation program created for the economic integration into and political nearing to the European Union of six former Soviet states: the Republic of Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Byelorussia. Romania was represented at the Summit by President Klaus Iohannis, who said his country was in favor of the EU’s restating its commitment to these countries.