March 2, 2017 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 02.03.2017, 20:09
VISEGRAD 4 Romanian Minister for European Funds, Rovana Plumb said in Warsaw on Thursday that the post-2020 cohesion policy must remain the EU’s main investment pillar. Plumb went on to say that a strong and effective cohesion policy would be generating intelligent, sustainable and pro-inclusion growth all throughout Europe. The statement was made at the meeting, which brought together ministers in charge of the cohesion policy with the Visegrad Group, made up of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia and from invited countries like Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia. On this occasion, representatives of the eight countries have signed a joint statement concerning the general directions of the cohesion policy for the next EU budget. The meeting in Warsaw was also attended by the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu.
PRIORITY The major priority of the Romanian government is to attract European funds worth 5.2 billion euros by the end of the year, said the minister for regional development and deputy Prime Minister Sevil Shhaideh. Romania lost 3.5 billion euros of the entire amount of European funds it was entitled to between 2007 and 2013 and has so far managed to attract about 1% of the 30 billion euros available to it in the 2014-2020 period. The average absorption rate at European level for this financing period stands at 3%.
DRAFT LAW Romania’s Minister for the Business Environment, Alexandru Petrescu on Thursday announced the Prevention draft law would be subjected to public debates next week. The minister said the draft law is based on two fundamental principles: providing effective information to companies and enterprises, including through a unique portal, and avoiding their sanctioning for violating some legal provisions concurrently with solving the issues detected. Illegal labour and offenses such as those jeopardizing people’s health and safety, like selling expired goods aren’t covered by the new law, Minister Petrescu explained.
OMBUDSMAN Romania’s ombudsman (AP) was notified ex officio and is going to take the legal moves in the case of the two Romanian children taken over by the authorities in Finland and placed in different foster homes. According to an AP communiqué, their mother, a doctor with Romanian citizenship, settled in Finland several years ago. After divorce, her Finnish husband accused her of trying to take the children to Romania, and in the spring of 2015 the authorities stepped in to take over the minors. The mother has already appealed to the Finnish embassy in Romania and to the Committee for the Diaspora with the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest. In another development, the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest, through Romania’s embassy in Helsinki, has called for the repatriation of the two children that are to be raised by their grandparents in Romania, the AP communiqué also says.
