The Week in Review: October 19-24

A look at the headline-making events this past week

Newsroom, 25.10.2015, 19:30

IMF experts are in Bucharest

An IMF delegation has this week held
talks with high-ranking officials in Bucharest. The IMF has forecast a budget
deficit of 3% of the GDP in 2016 and also a higher rate for 2017, due to
significantly slashed taxes and duties as well as pay rises announced by the
authorities. The IMF has recommended that the deficit for 2016 be limited at a
rate of 1.5%. Upon meeting president Klaus Iohannis, the IMF representatives
voiced reservations about the approval of a new loan agreement. IMF experts
have also briefed the senators and deputies in the budget committees on the
talks with government representatives. The IMF’s only objections are related to
structural reforms and a potential
exceeding of the budget deficit. Prime Minister Victor Ponta has
underlined that Romania will observe the 1.86% target deficit approved by
Parliament. Romania’s latest agreement with the IMF, which expired in 2015, was
worth two billion euros, but the authorities didn’t access any of the available
funds.

The Romanian Foreign Minister pays a
visit to Palestine and Israel

Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu paid an
official visit to Israel and Palestine on Monday and Tuesday. Aurescu was
received by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Monday. The two
officials tackled the present situation in the Middle East and the prospects of
resuming peace talks with Israel. In Jerusalem, Bogdan Aurescu met with Israeli
Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Romanian official
said that rebuilding trust was a prerequisite for resuming peace talks with the
Palestinians and reiterated an appeal for defusing tension in the region. The
two officials reconfirmed the privileged relations between Romania and Israel
and tackled cooperation in various fields such as the military and cyber
security. The Romanian minister also met with members of the community of
Romanian-born Israelis.

The Parliament in Bucharest hosts debates on postal voting

A bill on postal voting is being debated
upon in the decision-making Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest. The legislative
proposal enjoyed a landslide Senate approval; both the Social Democrats, the
main party in the coalition government and the National Liberal Party, the main
opposition party, backed the bill. This
kind of voting will be made available only to Romanians residing abroad, who
will be casting their ballot in Parliamentary, Presidential and EU Parliamentary
elections. Voters must enlist in the Election Registry a couple of months
before the election. The document, drawn up by the Permanent Election
Authority, provides for the setting up of a postal election bureau for every 10
thousand voters. Organizational malfunction had prevented thousands of
Romanians living abroad from casting their ballot in the presidential election
of November 2014; many of them had been standing in queues for hours before the
election booths, and didn’t even manage to vote for their candidate.

Former president Ion Iliescu and other
former high-ranking officials are indicted for the events of
June 1990.

Romania’s former president Ion Iliescu
has been placed under investigation for crimes against humanity in a file on
what is known as the Miners’ Raid on Bucharest over June 13th and 15th.
The raid stifled a wide-scale protest rally against the left-wing government,
which came to power after the fall of the communist dictatorship in Romania.
Investigations have been launched in the same file against Virgil Magureanu,
the then head of the Romanian Intelligence Service, former Prime Minister Petre
Roman and also former ministers Victor Athanasie Stanculescu and Gelu Voican
Voiculescu. Against the backdrop of violent incidents in Bucharest, which the
army had already managed to contain, Iliescu invoked a far-right coup attempt,
calling on the population to defend the democratic institutions. The
president’s call was responded by miners based in Jiu Valley, central Romania,
who stormed the University, some opposition party headquarters and some
independent publications offices. The incidents ended in four official deaths,
hundreds of wounded people and over 1,000 abusive arrests. Last year the
European Court of Human Rights issued a decision asking Romania to carry on
investigations in the miners’ raid of June 1990.

The Romanian Government endorses the second budget adjustment this year

The Romanian government has endorsed the
second budget adjustment this year. According to a bill drafted by the Finance
Ministry, incomes and spending will each rise by roughly 2.6 billion lei, with
a deficit of around 1.85% of the GDP. The Ministry of Agriculture will get most
of the money, about 770 million lei, while the social insurance budget fund
will be enlarged in order to support the pay rises due to come into effect as
October 1st. The Ministries of Regional Development and Public
Administration, as well as the European Funds, Education and Labour Ministries
will also benefit from increased funds. 1.61 billion lei are to be taken from
the Transport Ministry but the National Railway Company and Metrorex, running
the Bucharest tube network, will get additional funds. The Liberals have been
quick to complain that funds have again been slashed from the road
infrastructure.

Public Sector employees whose salaries
were cut in 2010 get their money back

Under a recent court ruling, teachers,
magistrates and public sector employees who won legal trials against the former
government led by Emil Boc will get their money back, in the form of amounts
declared by the court as enforceable titles. Prime Minister Victor Ponta
announced the budget surplus this year allows for these payments to be made in
advance, so employees will not have to wait until 2016. Public sector employees
had their wages slashed by 25% in 2010 due to the crisis.