May 17, 2017
Romanian PM holds talks on new state wages; EC calls on Romania to house refugees
Ştefan Stoica, 17.05.2017, 14:04
FINANCE — Romanian PM Sorin Grindeanu meets today representatives from the Finance Ministry and the national tax administration as protests continue against the newest law proposal on state salaries. The head of the national tax administration, Bogdan Stan, said that the new legal provisions would firstly affect the salaries of customs and anti-fraud employees. They claim that the new law would diminish their income. Also today, discussions resume on this bill in the labor committee in the Senate.
REFUGEES — The EC on Tuesday named Romania among the states they require to take in more refugees, in line with quotas delineated in September 2015. At the same time, the EC also pointed out that Romania is preparing to take in refugees directly from Turkey. EU data shows that so far Romania took in 568 refugees of the 4,180 it was supposed to. In total, 160,000 refugees are supposed to be taken in within two years. Added to that are 22,000 refugees from countries neighboring Syria, such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. The only countries that have so far not received refugees are Austria, Hungary and Poland, the latter two being threatened with infringement procedures.
ROME — WTA number 4, the Romanian tennis player Simona Halep today takes on WTA 32nd-ranked, the German tennis player Laura Siegemund. The confrontation counts towards the second round of the Rome tournament, with 2.7 million dollars up for grabs. Simona is fresh after the resounding success in Madrid, her second consecutive success. In the women’s doubles today the Romanian-US pair Monica Niculescu — Christina Mchale take on the all-Italian pair made of Sara Errani and Martina Trevisan. In the men’s doubles, the Romanian Florin Mergea and Pakistan’s Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi have already got through to the second round where they are pitted against the Polish-Brazilian pair made of Lukasz Kubot and Felipe Melo.
FRANCE — Centrist President Emmanuel Macron today is presented with a proposal for the new cabinet, which the newly elected president said should be open and representing all sides of the political arena. The nominations for the cabinet come a day late, as each new proposed high official was thoroughly vetted by the body in charge of transparency in public life. The new ministers face public distrust, as 75% of French citizens find their politicians corrupt. On Monday, Emmanuel Macron designated right leaning Edouard Philippe as Prime Minister.
TRUMP — The White House dismisses information published in the American media according to which President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in order to stop the investigation into ties to Russia. The new scandal comes in shortly after another one, involving President Trump allegedly disclosing to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov highly classified information about the fight against ISIS, supplied by an allied country.
