Wednesday, January 31st

First cabinet meeting of Romania’s new government

Romania’s new government, the third in six months, is expected to meet for the first time on Wednesday with Vasilica Viorica Dăncilă as first female prime minister in the country’s history.
A former MEP, Viorica Dăncilă is a leading member of the governing left-wing Social Democratic Party (PSD) and close ally of party chairman Liviu Dragnea, speaker of Parliament’s lower house, who can’t be prime minister due to a conviction for vote-rigging.
Ms. Dăncilă, 54, supports laws being considered by Parliament that critics say will make it harder to prosecute high-level corruption. In her first statement two weeks ago, she said it was important “to put into practice the governing program and … to prepare for the presidency of the European Union,” which Romania takes over on January 1, 2019.

Protests at Romania’s National Education Ministry

Some 100 members of the Spiru Haret Trade Union Federation are expected to protest outside the building of Romania’s National Education Ministry in the capital Bucharest on Wednesday. Teachers from the capital and across the country will picket the ministry’s headquarters for two hours over the ministry’s new provisions which, according to protesters, could affect the educational process. They also call on the ministry to increase its budget in order to improve educational standards. Romania’s education system still faces major challenges in terms of participation in the process. More investment in the lower levels of education would benefit a proportion of the population that cannot afford it which, in long term, would increase the percentage of marginal populations (i.e. the poor and Roma minorities).

Romania’s unemployment rate

Romania’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate inched down to 4.6 percent in December of 2017, from 4.7 percent in the previous month, according to figures released by the country’s National Institute of Statistics (INS). It was the lowest jobless rate since the series began in January 2004 as the number of unemployed went down by 8 thousand to 435 thousand. Unemployment rate for men decreased 0.2 percentage points to 5.4 percent, while that for women also declined 0.1 percentage points to 3.6 percent. A year earlier, the jobless rate was higher at 5.5 percent. Unemployment rate in Romania averaged 6.66 percent from 2004 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 8.60 percent in January of 2004 and a record low of 4.60 percent in December of 2017.

Alexandru Danga, RADOR