Friday, 17th November 2017

The President of Romania attends the EU Social Summit for Fair Jobs and Growth in Göteborg, Sweden

The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who attends the social summit of European Union, draws attention to education as a means of easing the access to the labor market. European leaders, meeting today in Gothenburg, Sweden, want to boost social measures to counter populist and eurosceptic trends. The summit will end with a declaration and a set of principles to be followed by the member states, including the right to vocational education and training, treatment and equal opportunities, especially between men and women, and a minimum wage. President Iohannis underlined the importance of an educational policy in the provision of jobs and reducing youth unemployment. Prior to the meeting, the President of Romania pointed out that Romania advocates a fair approach to jobs and disagrees with any policy which discriminates against certain EU states. The Romanian president also said it is important to be encouraged those European programs which produce exceptional results. Klaus Iohannis pointed out the Erasmus program, where many young Romanian students took part and were able to study in different universities across Europe. The summit agenda will also include informal talks on the Brexit issue, said president Klaus Iohannis.

Romanian opposition to file a censure motion against the Government

Two of the main opposition parties in Romania, PNL (National Liberal Party) and USR (Save Romania Union), intend to file a censure motion against the Prime Minister Mihai Tudose’s government. The move, initiated by liberals of PNL after the government amended the Fiscal Code, gained USR support and the promise to have also the votes of PMP (Popular Movement Party) in the plenary. UDMR (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) does not seem to agree with the motion, and the Group of National Minorities has not determined how it will vote. “We talked about what is going to happen in Romania when this government leaves the power. Because this government has to go home if we want to stop the lack of predictability, the decline in purchasing power, the destabilization of Romanian institutions”, said the leader of the liberals in the lower House of Parliament, Raluca Turcan.

Romanian prosecutors have decided to close a criminal case against the Russian oil company Petrotel-Lukoil

Prosecutors in Romania have decided to close a criminal case against Russian oil company Petrotel-Lukoil and its general manager, Andrei Bogdanov, over allegations of money laundering. The Petrotel-Lukoil case is part of a bigger criminal case, which is currently in court. The prosecutors attached to the Ploieşti Court of Appeal (PCAP) did not reveal the reasons for which this case was closed. In 2015, PCAP’s prosecutors seized Lukoil’s assets, worth € 2 billion, following an investigation into money laundering and tax evasion.

Dozens of Romanian employees protest against the new Law of Wages

Dozens of employees of the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture (APIA) from several cities in Romania protested on Friday for the second day against the Law on Wages, which they are concerned will diminish their salaries from 1 January next year by an amount going from 700 to 2,800 RON. Protesters are dissatisfied with both wage losses and the fact that wages in the territory are lower than those in the central office. They threatened to come to Bucharest next week to express their claims. The Romanian Agriculture Minister, Petre Daea, insisted that there is money for all. Currently, APIA has almost five thousand jobs, of which about 400 are in the capital Bucharest.

Magda Baciu – RADOR