January 3, 2016 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 03.01.2016, 12:15

Early this
year, the Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos will pay formal visits to Germany, France
and the Netherlands, the country that took over the rotating presidency of the
EU on January 1st. The Romanian PM has stated that he has agreed with the Dutch
PM Mark Rutte to hold talks on the Dutch presidency’s calendar and agenda, as
Romania would like to play a pro-active role within the EU in the coming
period. The first visit will take place on January 7th, in Berlin, where Ciolos
will meet with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On January 20th,
Romania’s Constitutional Court will analyze the law on the local officials’
special pensions, contested by the Ciolos Government, according to which the law
would instate a special regime of privileges. The Government’s objections are
also related to the fact that the new rights would be granted retroactively,
and also that there is no funding secured for the newly established
indemnities. According to the Executive, there would be at least 16,300
beneficiaries, and the budget deficit would grow by some 91 million Euros.
Under the new law, endorsed by Parliament, mayors, deputy mayors, presidents
and vice-presidents of local councils would get additional pensions of up to
1,500 Euros, depending on their time in office.

The Prime Minister Designate
of the Republic of Moldova, Ion Sturza, will on Monday call for Parliament’s
vote of confidence during a special meeting. He has presented the list of
candidates for the seats of ministers and said the future cabinet will be a
technocratic one, made of honest and patriotic people. He has stated he wants
the government to be the expression of people’s will, but Moldova is in a deep
crisis, which is is mainly moral in nature. Most of the parliamentary
parties have announced they will not support Ion Sturza’s cabinet, and the
Socialists have said they will not even participate in the meeting.

The European
Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, the German Gunther Oettinger, has
stated for the Sunday issue of the ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’, that a
unique procedure might be enforced against Warsaw, for violation of the EU’s fundamental values. The Polish
Parliament has endorsed a law which places the media under the control of the
Conservative Party, which is currently ruling the country. According to the
publication, the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker wants to
resort to a procedure adopted in 2014, targeting the countries where there the
rule of law is under threat, and put the matter on the agenda of the
Commission’s meting on January 13th.

Germany has
called for tighter international cooperation, as security will remain a serious
issue in 2016 as well. The call was made following information that Islamic
State militants had planned an attack in Munich on New Year’s Eve. The German
Interior Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, has stated that, in the future, Germany
will have to cooperate closer with the foreign intelligence services.

The international community is worried
about the execution in Saudi Arabia of 47 people charged with terrorism,
including a Shiite clergy man, as that might have serious consequences. The US
Department of State has made an appeal to cooperation among the leaders in the
region and has stated that such executions might raise tension between sects.
The EU is worried too, as states such as Iran have threaten with retaliations.
Nimr Bakr al – Nimr, a high-ranking clergy man, was a virulent critic of the
Sunni dynasty that rules Saudi Arabia. In 2011, during the Arab Spring, he led
the protest movement in the east of the kingdom, where most of the Shiite
population reside. Nimr Bakr al-Nimbr was sentenced to death in October 2014
for terrorism and plotting against the sovereign.

Foreign employers
have over 2 thousand jobs in the EU for Romanian citizens. The jobs are
provided through the EURES Romania network. The most wanted are unskilled
agricultural workers, for which farms in Spain, Portugal and Denmark have hundreds
of jobs available. Moreover a Czech
company wants to employ 50 freight drivers and hospitals in Great Britain and
Germany are interested in hiring several dozens infirmary personnel and nurses.

A code yellow alert for
blizzard is in place in ten counties in southern and south-western Romania. The
weather is extremely cold all over the country, with lows exceeding the values
normal for this time of the year. The
wind is blowing hard in the southern part, so the real feel is that
temperatures are much lower. A wave of warmer air is expected to enter the
country on Tuesday, so temperatures will get to the normal values.