November 21, 2018 UPDATE

A roundup of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 21.11.2018, 19:46

Reshuffle. The Executive Committee
of the Social Democratic Party has proposed Mircea Draghici and Lia Olguta
Vasilescu as ministers for transport and regional development, respectively. On
Tuesday, president Klaus Iohannis turned down the initial nominations for the
two positions, namely Lia Olguta Vasilescu for transports and Ilan Laufer for
regional development. He accepted six other proposals tabled by prime minister
Viorica Dancila for defence, labour, economy, culture, communications, as well
as youth and sports. The six, along with the new education minister, Ecaterina
Andronescu, who had been nominated earlier, have been sworn in. President
Iohannis said that, in his opinion, the government reshuffle planned by the
Social Democrats was not a good solution, and that the entire cabinet should be
replaced because of their poor performance. The president said he approved the
reshuffle because Romania is too close to taking over the European Union
presidency on 1st January 2019. Ilan Laufer, who is a Romanian Jew,
and whose nomination as minister for regional development was rejected by the
president, who is a German ethnic, said the refusal was yet another act of
anti-Semitism from the president this year. In response, the president has
firmly condemned the use of extremely sensitive language for political
purposes, emphasising that references to anti-Semitism and Nazism during a
political dispute are irresponsible and show a serious lack of education,
culture, diplomacy and knowledge of history.

Anticorruption. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has rejected
the proposal of the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader to appoint Adina Florea as
the new chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate.
Previously, Florea had also received a negative opinion from the Superior
Council of Magistracy. We recall that the position of chief prosecutor of the
National Anticorruption Directorate has been vacant since July, when its
former occupant Laura Codruta Kovesi was dismissed by President Klaus Iohannis following
a ruling to that affect by the Constitutional Court.

Schengen.
The time has come to step up Romania’s
accession to the Schengen area, said the president of the European Parliament
Antonio Tajani at the end of a meeting of the Conference of Speakers of the EU Parliaments with the Romanian
government in the run up to Romania’s taking over the EU Council presidency on
1st of January 2019. Brexit, the annual post-2020 budget, the
preparation of the Sibiu summit in central Romania to discuss the future of the
Union and the European Parliament elections are some of the issues that will
dominate Romania’s term, one that is well prepared, according to prime minister
Viorica Dancila. The Romanian authorities have presented the four main themes
of its 6-month presidency: a cohesive Europe, a Europe with a greater global
role, a Europe of security and a Europe of values. The European Parliament
delegation headed by Antonio Tajani also had talks with president Klaus
Iohannis, who pointed out that Romania wishes to contribute to the promotion
of the common European
agenda in a constructive and consensual spirit. Another item on the agenda of
the European delegation was a debate with young Romanians at the Faculty of Law
in Bucharest.

Budget deficit. The European
Commission has established that Romania has not taken measures to reach its
medium-term budget objective. The Commission has also recommended Bucharest to
reduce its budget deficit next year by at least 1% of the GDP. A previous
recommendation in this respect from June this year indicated 0.8% for both this
year and the next. The European Commission has also warned that Romania’s
public deficit has gone up from 0.5% of the GDP in 2015 to 2.9% in 2016 and is
estimated to reach 3.3% per year.

Joint meeting. The governments of Romania and Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet state with
a majority Romanian-speaking population) are to hold a joint meeting on
Thursday in Bucharest. The announcement was made simultaneously in Bucharest
and Chisinau. The two prime ministers, Viorica Dancila and Pavel Filip, will
have talks prior to the meeting. The two delegations will review the joint
projects and establish the cooperation priorities for the future, as well as
sign a number of bilateral agreements in various fields.

Pensions. Senate will resume debates and vote on the pensions bill on Monday. Last week, the bill received a positive opinion from the labour committee, who made no significant changes to the version approved by the government. The new bill, say the law makers, seeks to eliminate the inequalities in the public pensions system that have led to situations in which people with the same seniority, the same profession and the same amount of contribution have ended up with different amounts of pension. The bill provides for the gradual increase in the pension point by 2021. The minimum contribution period remains 15 years. As a novelty, women who have fulfilled this condition and have given birth to three children may retire six years earlier. The former labour minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu has given assurances that no pension will be lower as a result of the new law. The opposition has criticised the bill, however. The Save Romania Union senator Florin Presada has spoken about inequality, given that the so-called special pensions are still in place.

Festival. The Romanian National Radio
Orchestra featuring pianist David Fray conducted by Frédéric Chaslin have a
performance on Wednesday night as part of the RadiRo Festival of Radio
Orchestras organised by Radio Romania. The day’s events also included a jazz
performance by Aura Urziceanu and the Radio Big Band conducted by Ionel Tudor. This
fourth edition of the RadiRo Festival brings together three major world
orchestras, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, Switzerland, and the
RTÉ National Symphony
Orchestra from Ireland. For the first time since its inception, the
festival also includes jazz music. All the events are broadcast live by Radio
Romania, and rebroadcast by the Romanian public television and by other radio
stations as part of the European Broadcasting Union.