The Week in Review: October 25-31
A look at the headline-making events this past week
Roxana Vasile, 31.10.2015, 12:29
The “vote by mail law has been adopted
Romanian citizens domiciled abroad will be able to vote by mail, but only in the parliamentary elections due next year. The Chamber of Deputies with the Romanian Parliament on Wednesday passed a law on this issue. The measure was extremely necessary, after thousands of Romanians in the Diaspora queued up at polling stations for hours to vote in last years presidential election, with some of them finding it impossible to cast their votes, because of the improper organization of the ballot. The ruling Social-Democrats say the law voted on Wednesday is a pilot project, which might be extended to the presidential and European elections, if everything goes well at the parliamentary elections next autumn.
The president of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea explains: “As there are slightly different procedures and a more comprehensive analysis of the two rounds of the ballot is needed, in terms of logistics and infrastructure, decision makers didnt want to have another reason to postpone the adoption of this law again. All those who doubted that the same provisions will apply to the presidential elections, will be proven wrong or to intentionally try to cast a shadow over what we have all achieved here.
The National Liberal Party, in opposition, voted for the law, in the hope that it will be extended, after the 2016 parliamentary elections.
Liberal MP Mihai Voicu: “We have taken a step forward by adopting the vote by mail system for parliamentary elections, but we have to do more. This is all that could be achieved given the current parliamentary majority. Hopefully, another parliamentary majority, formed after the 2016 elections, will extend this law.
The fight against corruption continues
Gheorghe Nichita, the suspended mayor of Iasi, the largest city in eastern Romania, and Tiberiu Urdareanu, the CEO of a significant group of firms, UTI, were taken into custody on Thursday evening, for taking and giving bribe, respectively. According to the National Anticorruption Directorate, Gheorghe Nichita allegedly claimed and received undue benefits in exchange for granting a EU funded contract worth some 12 million euros to the UTI group. The contract was meant to ease road and pedestrian traffic and reduce the level of pollution in Iasi.
In another move, MP and former development minister Elena Udrea, who has just been released from arrest and is now subject to legal restrictions pending trial, is again investigated by anticorruption prosecutors as part of a different case. Udrea is accused that, during her tenure as a minister, she received a 4 million US dollar bribe from a businessman to help him earn a contract. Elena Udreas colleagues in Parliament this week approved the start of a criminal investigation against her and her being taken into custody, but they rejected a request for her pre-trial arrest.
New economic measures
The government approved on Tuesday several amendments to the Fiscal Code, among which the reduction of the VAT for water to 9%; changing the tax bracket for micro-enterprises; exempting higher secondary education institutions from paying profit tax; and reducing tax on dividends from 16% to 5%. The Romanian business environment has welcomed the introduction of this last measure, which will take effect as of January 1st 2016 and will apply to dividends obtained by Romanian natural persons and legal bodies, as well as to the dividends obtained in Romania by non-residents.
Also this week, the government approved a new package of laws on public procurement that incorporates the latest European norms in the field and is designed to improve infrastructure. The package will be sent to Parliament to be debated and voted on as part of an emergency procedure. The economic policy analyst with the European Commission Representation in Bucharest, Carmen Marcus, has quoted Romanian and foreign experts as saying that Romania has never had a better macro-economic situation, following financial assistance programs with its international creditors. Also, Romania ranks 37th out of 189 countries in a World Bank business classification, going up 11 positions and overtaking such countries as Italy, Hungary, Russia, Croatia and Greece.
The Republic of Moldova has no government
Romanias president, Klaus Iohannis, took note of the collapse of pro-western three-party government of the Republic of Moldova on Thursday and underlined that a stable government should be formed for Moldova to be able to stay on its European course.
According to president Iohannis, Romania reiterates its commitment to provide full support to neighbouring Moldova in this respect. Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu shares this view: It is extremely important for the whole responsible political class in Chishinau, particularly the pro-European parties that have been voted for this very purpose by the citizens of the Republic of Moldova in November 2014, a vote which was reconfirmed by the pro-European choice in the local elections held in June, to understand that Moldova needs stability, a pro-European coalition and European reforms.
The Moldovan cabinet led by Liberal-Democrat Valeriu Strelet has been dissolved by Parliament following a censure motion initiated by the Socialist and pro-Russian communist opposition. Voting for the motion, which involved a vote of confidence in Parliament, were also the members of the Democratic Party, who are part of the ruling coalition, who, just like the initiators of the motion, accuse Valeriu Strelet of incompetence and corruption. The latter said that, by initiating the motion, the left tries to destabilise the republic and deviate it from its target, namely European integration.
