March 17-23

A look at the headline-grabbing events this past week

România Internațional, 23.03.2019, 14:00

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis at the
European leaders’ summit in Brussels

On Thursday and
Friday, the EU leaders gathered in Brussels to attend the spring European
Council. The agenda of talks included topics such as strengthening the EU
economy, climate change, the future summit with China and means of combating
disinformation. Still, the main topic was the UK’s leaving the EU, initially
scheduled for March 29th.

The European leaders accepted a Brexit
postponement, but by one month less than the British PM Theresa May had
requested. In the meantime, the British Parliament would have to endorse the
deal with Brussels, because a no-deal divorce would be disadvantageous to all
the parties involved, as Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has stated:

A
so-called hard Brexit is very problematic, first of all for Great Britain, and
also for us, because we want to build a good relationship in the future so it
would be good to start off on the right foot.

The European
Parliament President Donald Tusk has stated that, according to the first
scenario, if the withdrawal agreement is approved by the British Parliament,
next week, the European Council agrees with a postponement until May 22nd.
Another possible scenario is that the British MPs do not approve the agreement,
so the European Council would propose a postponement until April 12th,
and in the meantime London is expected to state in which direction it intends
to move.

Donald Tusk has also stated that the British Government has the chance
to choose from leaving with a deal, leaving with no deal, a long term
postponement or revoking art 50. April 12th is a key date, as until
then Great Britain will have to decide whether it will organize elections for
the European Parliament. Unless it decides up until that date, the option of a
long-term delay becomes impossible by default.

Also on Thursday,
the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis attended the annual Transatlantic
conference organized by AmCham EU in Brussels. As a strategic partner to the
US, Romania believes that its term at the helm of the Council of the EU is an
opportunity to promote a positive cooperation agenda between the EU and the US,
according to president Iohannis.

Meeting in Bucharest of the European
Diaspora Ministers

On Monday,
Bucharest played host to a meeting of Ministers and State Secretaries for
Diaspora, the first such event organized by a country holding the presidency of
the Council of the EU. Representatives of 17 member states looked at ways
European states establish economic and cultural cooperation relations with the
Diaspora, help support the linguistic and cultural development of the Diaspora
and create policies that have led to the rapid integration of members of the
Diaspora.

Talks focused on labor mobility, migration and integration, human
trafficking and strategies to support the process of returning to countries of
origin. In this context, Minister for Romanians Worldwide Natalia Intotero said
the following:

We’ve had talks on the exchange of best practices, projects that should
help us continue to support the preservation of national identity of each state
in its Diaspora. I’ve noticed a keen interest from the majority of member
states to develop policies and programmes to help anyone wanting to return home
to be able to do so.

The Romanian
official recalled that Romania’s EU Council Presidency managed to reach a
preliminary agreement with the European Parliament on the creation of the
European Labour Authority, a new body in charge with supporting member states
in implementing EU legislation in the areas of labour mobility across the Union
and social security coordination.

No-confidence motions rejected by the
Romanian Parliament

The leftist parliamentary majority in Bucharest
formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and
Democrats on Wednesday rejected, by a comfortable margin, the simple motions
filed by the opposition against the finance and justice ministers. The latter,
Tudorel Toader, has been criticised for the changes to the justice laws by
means of emergency orders, the underfunding of the system and Romania’s failure
to have its Cooperation and Verification Mechanism lifted.

Put in place when
Romania joined the European Union in 2007, the Mechanism is an instrument by
which Brussels continues to monitor the Romanian justice system. An independent
backed by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, Tudorel Toader has also
caused vexation among the Social Democrats, who have criticised him for taking
too long to make changes in the system. Also, the Chamber of Deputies rejected
the simple motion filed against the Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici.

The
opposition has called for the abrogation of Ordinance no.114, which has been
criticized by the business community because of the severe fiscal measures it
introduces. The normative act can be improved, the finance minister himself has
admitted. He has promised that the government will make corrections by the end
of the month with respect to the introduction of certain duties on energy,
telecommunications and banking companies.

Carriers’
protest in Romania

The Romanian Government will approve, at its
next meeting, changes to the legislation on the transport of people. It’s a promise
the big trade union confederations in the field got following the protests
staged in Bucharest by hundreds of taxi, minibus and coach drivers.

After Wednesday’s
protest meeting of the Federation of Romanian Transport Operators, it was the
turn of the Trade Union Confederation of Certified Operators and
Transporters in Romania, represented mainly by taxi drivers, to protest on
Thursday and call for changes to the legislation that regulates urban
alternative means of transport, which they currently describe as unfair
competition.