The Week in Review: February 13-19

A look at the main developments this past week

Roxana Vasile, 18.02.2017, 13:08

Romanias 2017 Budget

On Thursday Romanias President Klaus Iohannis promulgated the laws on the 2017 state budget and social security budget. The President has explained he decided to promulgate the laws only because Romania needed a budget, but has stressed the fact that in this budget revenues are overestimated and expenses are very high. That is why the President has called on the coalition Government made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania to be responsible when implementing its governing program.

Klaus Iohannis: “Some people say the revenues in this budget are optimistic, I would say they are overestimated. Also, expenses are very high. This hyper-optimistic approach to the state budget is visible if, for instance, we make a comparison between last years consolidated budget revenues and what has been provided for this year, which is 14% more than last year, without providing any explanation whatsoever as to what are the grounds for such a phenomenal growth. 14% is a lot for the consolidated budget.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu has stated that the budget law is an ambitious project and the Executive has earmarked money for all the measures it has announced.

Sorin Grindeanu: “Id say we have managed to come up, in a record time, with a budget that takes into account our governing program and all the measures that we have committed to implementing. We have done our job, we have adopted all the necessary legislative documents and we have included the money in the budget for all these measures.

But which are the economic indicators that the Government can count on? According to the National Institute of Statistics, Romanias GDP went up by 4.8% in 2016 as compared to the previous year. For 2017, economic growth forecasts range between 3.7% according to the World Bank, 3.8% as estimated by the IMF, and 4.4% according to the European Commission. In its winter forecast, published on Monday, the European Commission warns, though, that the public deficit would reach 3.6% of the GDP this year, to stand at 3.9% in 2018.

Emergency Decree and Referendum

The emergency decree issued by the Romanian Government to abrogate the controversial amendments to the criminal law, which triggered a large-scale political crisis, has been on the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies as of Wednesday. One day before, the Senate endorsed the bill unanimously.

Since the beginning of the crisis, on January 31st, hundreds of thousands of Romanians in the country and abroad have been calling for the resignation of the Grindeanu Cabinet, whom they accuse that, by trying to amend the criminal codes, actually intended to clean the criminal records of several influential politicians and local and central administration officials. The Social Democratic Party has denied the accusations, saying the Government only wanted to put the legislation in line with the Constitutional Courts rulings.

In this context, President Klaus Iohannis, criticized for embracing the cause of the anti-Government protesters, initiated a referendum on continuing the fight against corruption. On Monday, the initiative was endorsed by Parliament. In order to assure Romanias European partners that the fight against corruption is one of the priorities of the Government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu paid a short visit to Brussels later this week, where he said:

Sorin Grindeanu: “In the future, as regards regulations in the field of the judiciary, we would like to have such things decided in Parliament, after thorough debates involving public institutions, NGOs and, of course, the MPs, in order to have the rulings of the Constitutional Court regarding the criminal codes approved in Parliament.

In turn, the First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans recommended more transparency in the activity of the Romanian Executive. According to Frans Timmermans it is a good thing that the Government wants to get the Romanian legislation in line with the EU regulations, but this can only be done with complete openness and transparency.

Romania and NATOs eastern flank

As many as 500 US troops have arrived this week at the Mihail Kogalniceanu military base in Constanta, southeastern Romania, along with a shipment of tanks, combat vehicles and artillery equipment for multinational drills. Colonel Romeo Feraru with the Romanian Land Forces has more:

Romeo Feraru: “The 500 soldiers and artillery from the 1st Battalion ‘Fighting Eagles’ will station in Romania for a period of 9 months, after which they will be replaced by soldiers from another unit, thus ensuring a constant presence in Europe.

The US military will take part in multinational training exercises as part of the Atlantic Resolve military operation aimed at consolidating NATOs eastern flank.

In a statement made public by the NATO press office, the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg congratulated Romania for its huge effort to increase the budget for defense to 2% of the GDP in 2017, saying it is an example for other alliance members.

Entry visas for Romanians traveling to Canada to be lifted as of December 2017

Romanians will no longer need entry visas for Canada starting December 1st, 2017. The decision is part of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada, approved by the European Parliament this week. Eliminating visas for Romanians was a condition imposed by Bucharest in order to sign the free trade agreement. The agreement is to be ratified by all EU national and regional parliaments. Romanian MEP Iuliu Winkler has said that, besides eliminating visa requirements, the agreement also has numerous economic advantages.

Iuliu Winkler: “If we refer to the very complex part of the agreement, such as trade and economic cooperation, the medium sized companies in the energy sector or in other technological sectors will have the chance to cooperate on the Canadian public services market. The protection of intellectual property, copyright, inventions and innovations will be covered by the CETA agreement.

According to Iuliu Winkler, this may be the most important free trade agreement of the 21st century.