January 13, 2020 UPDATE

HOME AFFAIRS – Romanian PM Ludovic Orban was commissioned on Monday by his political party, the National Liberal Party with summoning, at the right moment, an extraordinary Parliament session to debate and adopt priority draft laws. Among them, the Liberals’ spokesman, Ionel Danca, mentioned the elimination of special pensions, the dismantling of the special section for the investigation of magistrates and the election of mayors in two rounds of voting. In his turn, the leader of the Liberal deputies, Florin Roman, said the plan to call early elections rules out the option for the PM to resign. On the other hand, the USR-PLUS alliance has called on president Klaus Iohannis and on the PM to propose a clear schedule for the adoption of the law regarding the election of mayors in two rounds and the staging of early elections as soon as possible. The Alliance believes that any postponement is only keeping the country in a state of blockage, with Parliament further controlled by the Social Democrats (in the opposition). Also on Monday, the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, called on PM Orban to carefully assess the option of early elections, saying there is no strong reason for it. The Social Democrats also oppose the idea of early elections.

Newsroom, 13.01.2020, 19:57

IRAN – Romania is closely monitoring the situation in the Gulf after Iran admitted having downed a Ukrainian plane, and this means monitoring the observance of the Vienna Convention which regulates diplomatic relations and the freedom to assemble in public spaces, shows a post on the official Twitter account of the Romanian Foreign Ministry. On Saturday and Sunday Iran saw street protests against the way in which the authorities communicated about the Ukrainian plane downed near Teheran, after the Iranian authorities had initially claimed it had been an accident. Thousands of Iranian protesters called for the resignation of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps confirmed Wednesday that they had hit the Ukrainian plane with 176 people on board, mostly Iranians and Canadians.

HIGHWAY – An important meeting for the future highway linking Sibiu (centre) to Pitesti (south) was held on Monday at the Transport Ministry in Bucharest. The meeting was meant to provide clarifications in relation to a request by the EC regarding the impact of this major infrastructure project on the environment. Granting European non-reimbursable funds for this project depends on these very clarifications. The meeting was being attended by representatives of the transport, European funds and environment ministries, and of the agencies for protected areas and environment protection. European experts also participated in the meeting to provide consultancy for preparing infrastructure projects. Of the 5 segments of the highway, a contract for design and construction has been signed for only one segment and works are to start in spring. Two segments are still in the assessment stage, while for the other two segments, actually the most difficult ones given their location in a mountainous area, a tender will be held. At least 11 protected natural sites, located on the route of the highway, need concrete measures for conservation, which Romania has not yet taken, the EC concluded. The total value of the project stands at 1.3 billion Euros of which 85% is to be disbursed by the EC. Transport Minister, Lucian Bode, said after the meeting that the European Commission will receive the requested clarifications in due time.

SCHOOL – Pre-school and school children on Monday started the second semester, one the longest semesters in the Romanian school’s recent history. It is by 5 weeks longer than the first semester. The spring holiday is scheduled from April 4th to 21st. The education minister Monica Anisie has announced that this week she will submit for public debate the methodology for the organization of contests for general inspectors and school managers.

DEFICIT— Romania reported the 3rd biggest current account deficit in the EU in the 3rd quarter of 2019. According to data published on Monday by Eurostat, the EU member states with the biggest current account deficit in the assessed period were Great Britain (23.9 billion Euros), France (4.1 billion Euros) and Romania (3.6 billion Euros). In another development, Romania’s national bank announced on Monday that from January to November 2019 the current account of the balance of payments reported a deficit of almost 10 billion Euros, higher by 21% as compared to the one reported in the same period of the previous year. (Translated by Elena Enache)