October 9, 2013
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news.
Ștefan Baciu, 09.10.2013, 12:11
The institutional cooperation agreement between the Romanian Presidency and Government is today being analysed by the foreign and justice ministers, Titus Corlatean and Robert Cazanciuc, respectively, together with two presidential advisers. President Traian Basescu has explained that it has initiated this mechanism of solving disputes, after he noticed that PM Victor Ponta failed to observe the agreement in such domains as foreign policy, the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law. Following the legislative elections, won by the Social Liberal Union, now in power, Traian Basescu and Victor Ponta, who are political rivals, have signed a so-called cohabitation agreement. The smouldering conflict between the two officials is on point of igniting again, the president warning that he might even break the agreement with the prime minister. In exchange, Victor Ponta considers that this agreement is necessary, because Romania doesn’t need a political crisis.
The Romanian Government on Wednesday is due to decide on the provisions of the new traffic code, which will be endorsed through an emergency ordinance. The new code brings about major changes in cases of road accidents and drunk driving. Any drivers involved in accidents which resulted in fatalities will have their license suspended throughout the duration of the trial. Driving with a blood alcohol concentration above the 0.5% threshold will be considered a crime, while any concentration between 0.2 and 0.5% will be considered an offence. Fines have also been increased under the new code and my go as high as 2150 euros. Serious road accidents may also end in the suspension of the driver’s license for two years. Prime Minister Victor Ponta says the main purpose of the code is to ensure road traffic safety. According to statistics, Romania ranks 3rd at EU level in terms of road traffic fatalities, with 11 victims per hundred thousand people.
On Wednesday, the day when the Holocaust is commemorated, Romanian prime minister, Victor Ponta sent a special message, expressing his compassion for all Jews who suffered because of the terror regime instated during WWII. Earlier, the Chamber of Deputies with the Romanian Parliament adopted a declaration calling on the government to further support its programs meant to commemorate and study the Holocaust.
The Romanian Investors’ Council is today organising in Bucharest a conference focussing on such issues as reducing the VAT to 19%, reducing social security contributions withdrawn from wages, tax exemption for reinvested profits, keeping energy price at the same level and resuming paying back excise duties on diesel used in agriculture. According to investors, as a consequence of increasing the VAT from 19 % to 24 % and of the authorities’ lack of efficiency, Romania collects less than 50% of the VAT, and the state budget loses some 20 billion Euros for these reasons.
Great Britain further supports Romania’s Schengen accession, in the context in which Bucharest fully meets the required technical criteria. The statement has been made by the British ambassador to Bucharest, Martin Harris, who has recalled that London took this stand as early as 2011. In exchange, The Netherlands, which has been opposed to Romania’s Schengen accession for a long time, has announced that it is waiting for the European Commission’s report on the judiciary in Romania, before making public its official standpoint. However, the EC’s report has been postponed until 2014. The Dutch diplomatic representative office in Romania says that Bucharest should further take “irreversible measures in reforming the judiciary and fighting corruption”. These days, Paris has also showed reservation over Romania’s accession to the free movement area, against the backdrop of heated debates in a pre-electoral period in France on the issue of Ethnic Roma coming from Romania.
The Romanian nationals working in Great Britain have a life and reputation marred by deceitful statistics and the alarming rhetoric of politicians and the mass media, says Romania’s ambassador to London, Ion Jinga. In an article posted by huffingtonpost.co.uk, Jinga mentions he has noticed a surge in hostility against immigration, ahead of the liberalization of the labour market for Romanian and Bulgarian workers, on January the 1st. Ion Jinga makes this statement in the context in which, according to some British newspapers, many Romanians in France consider the possibility to move to Great Britain to obtain benefits in that country. A campaign initiated by the British Interior Ministry in summer, which urged illegal immigrants to return home, has stirred controversy. Huge posters stuck on trucks, depicting handcuffs, specifying the number of arrests made in Britain and launching the message “Illegal in Great Britain? Go home or you run the risk of staying behind bars!”. The British Advertising Regulatory Authority has however came to the conclusion the campaign was not an offending one.
The president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, is today visiting the Italian island of Lampedusa, to pay homage to the 300 African immigrants who died in a shipwreck tragedy last week. Barroso, accompanied by the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, and Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, was booed by the locals, who also uttered insults. In recent times, the Italian authorities have drawn attention to instability on the Libyan frontier, which is crossed by most illegal ships with migrants onboard. Statistical figures show that in the past 20 years, between 17 and 20 thousand immigrants died in the Mediterranean, in the attempt to cross the sea in Northern Africa, heading for Europe.
