December 9, 2014
A roundup of domestic and international news.
România Internațional, 09.12.2014, 13:57
The Romanian Government and the IMF, World Bank and European Commission experts have today reached an agreement on next year’s budget. According to Prime Minister Victor Ponta, a budget deficit of 1.83% of the GDP has been agreed on. Victor Ponta has given assurances that there will be no additional taxes or duties in 2015. Moreover, measures that are already in force, such as those related to economic development and social justice, have been included in the budget. The economic growth forecast for next year is 2.5%, the same level in 2014. Based on today’s agreement, the final version of the budget bill will be drawn up, so that on December 21 the Parliament should vote on it, PM Ponta has said. The international lenders’ delegation will return to Romania in January.
European Commission experts are currently in Bucharest to assess the progress made by Romania in the field of judiciary. Topics like fighting corruption, lifting immunity and the legal framework regarding incompatibilities will be discussed. The next report under the for Cooperation Verification Mechanism will be made public in January or February next year. On December 9th, on the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day, the American, Dutch and British embassies in Romania conveyed a joint message of encouragement, mentioning Romania’s progress during the country’s 25 years of democracy. Its signatories also say Romanians should get more involved in the country’s social and political life to consolidate the rule of law.
Romania’s Constitutional Court has today decided to resume, on December 16, debates on the unconstitutionality exception regarding the provisions concerning the local authorities’ incompatibility with the position of representative in the boards of companies of local interest. The issue has been raised by the mayor of the Tuzla commune, in Constanta county, who says the exception concerns the unconstitutionality of a legal article regarding transparency when holding public positions and punishing corruption. Based on this article, the president-elect Klaus Iohannis was found incompatible by the National Integrity Agency while he was the mayor of Sibiu. The High Court of Cssation and Justice will deliver a ruling in this case. In keeping with the law, if a person is found incompatible, that person is banned from holding any public positions for the following three years.
The ties between Russia and NATO are in their worst state since the end of the cold war, but, in spite of that, Moscow continues to support the dialogue with the North Atlantic bloc, Russian Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov said in an interview with RIA Novosti. Russian president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, has said that the deployment of NATO forces close to the Russian border has raised concern in Moscow. The new American Ambassador in Russia, John Tefft, has said in his turn that NATO is not a threat to Russia, given that the North Atlantic Alliance is a defensive organisation.
The Ukrainian army and the pro Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine should observe 24-hour ceasefire interval, proposed last week by the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. If the ceasefire is observed, it might lead to the withdrawal of the heavy weaponry from the battlefield and to the creation of a buffer zone, after eight months of continuous fighting. In another move, Belarus has announced that negotiations due to take place in Minsk today, aimed at putting an end to the Ukrainian military conflict, will no longer be held.
Romania’s handball squad is up against Denmark today, in its second match in the Groupe B of the European Women’s Handball Championship held in Hungary and Croatia. On Sunday the Romanains lost their first match to Norway, 19-27, in Debrecen. Over one thousand Romanian fans went to support their team in Debeten, a town close to the border with Romania.
Ten counties in southern Romania are under a Yellow Code Alert for flooding until Thursday. Meteorologists have also issued a Code yellow Alert for Bucharest and 30 counties for heavy rain, snow, glazed frost and gusty wind. Snow is expected to cover the mountain areas, in layers that will exceed 15-20 cm. It has been raining uninterruptedly in the south and south-east and specialists say the volumes of water will range between 25 to 50 liters per square meter. The wind will blow harder, especially in the south-east, where gusts will register speeds of up to 60 km per hour, and blizzard will affect mountain areas. In southern Romania hundreads of households have been flooded and traffic has been disrupted. Maximum temperatures range from minus 2 and plus 8 degrees Celsius, The noon reading in Bucharest was 3 degrees.
