A selection of the main events in Romania this week.
Strategic projects for Romanian infrastructure development
Three motorways, a 300-ha healthcare compound in the capital city and the upgrade of 15 hospitals managed by the Transport Ministry, are the strategic investments that the Government of Romania will implement in a public-private partnership project. One of the motorways will connect the city of Ploiesti, in the south of the country, to Rasnov in the centre. In the east of the country, another motorway will link Targu Neamt and Iasi to Ungheni, in the Republic of Moldova, while in the south the third one will go from Bucharest to Craiova, Drobeta-Turnu Severin and Lugoj.
On Tuesday, deputy PM Viorel Stefan announced that the 100-km long motorway in the east will include a bridge across River Prut, connecting it to the road infrastructure in the neighboring Republic of Moldova, whereas the South Motorway will have a major contribution to the development of the travel industry. Viorel Stefan:
"The South Motorway, which will be 550-km long, is an important project for a lot of investors who have already invested substantially in the region, particularly in Craiova and other nearby areas. We should keep in mind that this motorway will contribute to developing the tourism potential in the Danube Gorges. Moreover, it will ensure interconnection with Serbia, Bulgaria, and the Pan-European Corridor 4 in Lugoj."
To encourage such large-scale projects, the Government amended on Thursday the laws regulating public procurement, in the sense of simplifying the procedures for awarding a contract. A strong critic of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, in power in Romania, right-wing President Klaus Iohannis took the opportunity to once again lash at the Government:
"Colourful maps and great plans aside, what people care about is results. And the 15 km of motorway finalised in the last one and a half years is ridiculously little. It proves incompetence and failure to mobilise around an essential national goal."
Some commentators argue however that such construction sites are not easy to organise, and that projects of this scale should be agreed on by the entire political spectrum.
Economic recommendations by the European Commission
The European Commission has called on Romania to immediately address its budgetary deviations and has warned that, unless Bucharest takes measures in this respect, it will enhance its oversight procedures. In its recommendations for each member state for 2018, the Commission also talks about the risk of poverty and social exclusion, which is very high in Romania. On the other hand, the Commission has also released its convergence report, according to which Bucharest only meets 2 of the criteria for switching to the European currency.
These documents seem to leave the Government members undisturbed. The Speaker of the Senate and President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, believes the Government and society as a whole are able to do their job without supervision:
"What is actually the impact of the annual reports drafted by the European Commission in other countries? In Romania, when the EC report is published, it's like God came down on Earth and makes us mortals face a situation from which there is no other escape than to comply with what God says."
On the other political side, the President of the National Liberal Party, Ludovic Orban, believes that the current governing coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats has turned Romania into the black sheep of the European Union.
European Funds for Romania
The European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, has recently visited Romania. She has drawn attention to the Romanian central and local authorities that they need to make sustained efforts to speed up the absorption of European funds and reduce as much as possible the risk of losing community money. On a visit to Bacau, in eastern Romania, Commissioner Cretu met with the mayors of 39 of Romania's county seats that receive direct European funds for development, urging them to send quality projects to Brussels. In a communiqué made public prior to her visit to Romania, Commissioner Cretu said that over one billion Euros would be invested in urban development in Romania, and the European Commission was ready to offer the necessary support to the Romanian authorities for these resources to be used more efficiently and faster.
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation has taken effect
Europeans, including Romanians, received good news on Friday: the EU's General Data Protection Regulation took effect on May 25. All the companies operating within the EU will have to abide by the same set of stricter norms from now on, and people will enjoy more control over their own personal data, while companies will benefit from equal conditions in terms of competition. The principle underlying the regulation sounds like: "It's your data, take control". For instance, when you buy something online, the seller will be allowed to collect only the data needed for fulfilling the contract, and then erase them when it no longer needs them.
The companies that will infringe the new General Data Protection Regulation will pay fines of 2% of their annual global turnover for violations of data protection rules, but no less than 10 million Euros, or of 4% of the annual global turnover for violations of the basic principles regarding data processing, but no less than 20 million Euros.
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