October 16, 2013

For a roundup of domestic and international news, click here.

Florentin Căpitănescu, 16.10.2013, 12:03

ROSIA MONTANA – The special parliamentary commission set up to look into the draft law on gold mining in Rosia Montana, central Romania has started to debate the draft law by articles. The gold mining project proposed by a Canadian company is a controversial one mainly due to the use of cyanide, triggering large-scale protests of civil society.

FINANCIAL SHUTDOWN IN THE US – Last night US democrat and republican congressmen failed to reach an agreement on raising the public debt ceiling. The US might default for the first time in 200 years unless the US Congress passes the law raising the debt ceiling until Thursday. Since October 1st, the US has been in partial shutdown, with no budget passed by the Congress. Fitch Ratings has warned that it decided to put the US AAA credit on rating watch negative, a measure prior to downgrading proper, CNN reports.

2014 WORLD CUP – The Romanian football team have qualified for the play-offs of the World Cup in 2014 after defeating Estonia 2-0 on home turf Tuesday night in their last game in the qualifier Group D. The drawing of lots for the play-offs will take place on Monday and the two qualifier matches are scheduled in mid-November. Also on Tuesday, Romania’s under 21 team beat the team of Ireland 1-0 away from home, in a game in the 6th group of the European Football Championship qualifiers due in 2015. Romania ranks third in the group with 5 points, after Germany and Montenegro.

EUROSTAT REPORT – According to data issued by the European Statistics Office today, in September the inflation rate in Romania was 1.1%, the same as in the Euro zone and below the EU average rate of 1.3%. In exchange, Romania ranks first in the EU in terms of the average price rise in the last 12 months, exceeding it by 4.1%. The National Bank of Romania has set the inflation forecast at 3.1% at the end of the year.

NEW ECONOMY MINISTER – Romanian president Traian Basescu has today signed the decree appointing liberal Andrei Gerea as minister of economy. Gerea, leader of the liberal parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies, has been nominated after the resignation of liberal Varujan Vosganian. The latter resigned last week, being charged with plotting and undermining the national economy.

HEALTHCARE – The salaries of resident doctors in Romania will go up progressively until 2014, representatives of the Health and Finance Ministries and of health-care trade unions have decided. Deputy Prime Minister Daniel Chitoiu said that the government also considered the allocation of 5% of the GDP for health-care. Since Monday, employees in the health-care system have been on a work-to-rule strike, being dissatisfied with the reforms proposed by the relevant ministry. Protesters demand at least 6% of the GDP for health-care and laws guaranteeing professional independence. The coalition of health-care professionals has announced that pro- tests will continue until the Official Gazette carries the respective laws and that on November 2nd a march will take place in Bucharest.

GERMANY – German Greens have today announced that they withdrew from the talks with the conservatives of German chancellor Angela Merkel aimed to form a government alliance, more than three weeks since the parliamentary elections. In exchange, international press agencies report, on Thursday conservatives will start another round of negotiations, the third one, with the social-democrats. The conservatives, who got 41.5% of the votes failing to obtain absolute majority in Parliament, are seeking new government allies with their traditional partners, the liberals, failing to pass the electoral threshold. Most Germans expect a government made up of conservatives and social-democrats in “the big coalition” that ruled during Mrs. Merkel’s first term in office over 2005-2009.

REPORT ON IRAK – More than 460,000 Iraki civilians were killed between 2003, the year of the US intervention and 2011 when foreign troops pulled out of Irak, a survey issued in the USA says, considering both the death toll of the conflict and its follow-ups. Fighting, attacks and murders account for 70% of the deaths. Invaded by a US-led international coalition in March 2003, Irak was involved in an inter-religious conflict over 2006-2007, being somewhat stable afterwards. Since the beginning of this year, a recrudescence of terrorist attacks has been reported, mostly perpetrated by the Al-Qaida terrorist network.