June 1, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 01.06.2023, 19:30

Education. On Thursday, the Romanian Government approved the ordinance that establishes increases in the basic salaries in education by 1,000 lei for the teaching staff and by 400 lei for non-the teaching staff. The normative act covers the public requests of the teaching staff, said the Minister of Education, Ligia Deca. She stated that these are measures with immediate effect, starting June 1, and the changes provided for in the salary law should be implemented gradually, over the next three years. In turn, Labor Minister Marius Budai said that negotiations with the unions will continue, to establish the news salary grid. Also on Thursday, the education unions announced that the all-out strike in pre-university education would continue on Tuesday, after the mini-holiday occasioned by the Childrens Day and the Orthodox Pentecost.

EPC Summit. At the second European Political Community (EPC) summit, Klaus Iohannis stressed again the importance of the support for Ukraine, a country that continues to be the target of Russias “merciless” attacks. The head of state has stated that the summit hosted by the Republic of Moldova is illustrative of its European vocation, for the seriousness of the reform efforts dedicated to its accession to the European Union and demonstrates the focus on the entire Eastern Neighborhood and the Black Sea region. Iohannis welcomed the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the meeting. Our summit must strongly reaffirm our unwavering support for Ukraine and its citizens to defeat Russian aggression and rebuild a peace based on the principles of the UN Charter, Klaus Iohannis stressed.. He also said that the European Unions support for the Republic of Moldova must benefit from more visibility, as its strengthening also means the strengthening of Europes strategic resilience. Almost 50 heads of state and government are participating in the Summit hosted by the Republic of Moldova. The European Political Community is an intergovernmental format for debate and a platform for political coordination between European states in order to promote political dialogue and cooperation on topics of common interest, for the consolidation of security, stability and prosperity on the continent. The first meeting of the CPE took place in October 2022, in Prague.

Security. NATO will monitor the airspace of the Republic of Moldova during the European Political Community Summit, Reuters reports. The meeting of the leaders of the 27 member states of the European Union and 20 other countries at a famous winery located only 20 km from the Ukrainian territory constitutes a security and organizational challenge for the Republic of Moldova, the agency writes. NATO has announced that AWACS planes will monitor the airspace of the Republic of Moldova until Friday. Remnants of missiles from the war in neighboring Ukraine have been found on the territory of the Republic of Moldova several times in recent months. AWACS can detect planes, missiles and drones at a distance of hundreds of km, which makes them an important early warning capability, stated the spokesperson for the Alliance, Oana Lungescu.

NATO. The NATO foreign ministers gathered in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, to finalize the details of the summit in July. The main topic is the conflict in Ukraine, but, according to the Radio Romania correspondent, another topic is Swedens accession to the Alliance, a step postponed due to the conditions imposed by Turkey. The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, stated that new laws related to terrorism entered into force in Sweden on June 1, which shows that Sweden is taking steps against the terrorist groups mentioned by Turkey. The head of the North Atlantic Alliance pointed out that, in recent months, the collaboration between Sweden and Turkey has strengthened, and “Sweden has demonstrated that it keeps its word”. Stoltenberg said that the NATO member states must take into account Turkeys “well-founded concerns” regarding its own security, considering that it is the allied state most affected by terrorist attacks. The head of NATO concluded that, under these conditions, Swedens accession will happen soon.

MSC. Romania is participating, until June 9, in the 107th meeting of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) of the International Maritime Organization – IMO, an event that takes place at the organizations headquarters in London, reads a press release from the Romanian Maritime Training Center – Ceronav. The event is of major importance in the field of maritime transport and represents an essential opportunity for discussions and actions regarding maritime safety and security. The MSC is the highest technical body of the IMO, which develops the rules regarding the safety of maritime navigation at the international level. Romania is an active member of the IMO and one of the most important suppliers of maritime officers for the international fleet, said Ovidiu Sorin Cupşa, Ceronavs CEO.

EP. The European Parliament has adopted a resolution drawing attention to Hungarys inability to take over the rotating presidency of the European Council in July 2024, due to issues related to the rule of law. MEPs belive that Hungary is no longer a democracy and demand that certain rights be suspended, according to Article 7 of the Treaty on the European Union. “Viktor Orbán lives with the illusion that he can use the European Union as an ATM and, at the same time, not respect the Unions values,” said Dutch MEP Thijs Reuten. He offered as an example Budapests position towards the war in Ukraine, Hungary being the only EU country that blocked European aid to Kyiv.

Children. More than half of Romanian children want to leave the country and settle abroad, according to the report on the state of children in Romania, published by “Save the Children” organization on Thursday. The data draw attention to the phenomenon of school dropout, to the large number of Romanian children who are not in the direct care of their parents, and recall the fact that Romania leads, at the European level, in terms of the number of underage mothers. Poverty is the phenomenon that affects many of the children, and in the “emotional well-being” chapter, statistics show that minors are not immune to anxiety and depression. The study carried out by Save the Children also shows that almost a quarter of Romanian minors, who are now up to 17 years old, had or have a parent who went to work abroad, and a third of them said that they did not agree with their leaving. Currently, over 72,000 children in Romania have parents working abroad, according to the National Authority for the Protection of Childrens Rights and Adoption. (MI)