5 January 2017, UPDATE

Romanias new ministers take over their posts./ Heavy snowfall and blizzards expected in half of Romania.

Newsroom, 05.01.2017, 12:15

Government. Romania’s new
ministers took over their posts on Thursday. The cabinet led by the Social
Democrat prime minister Sorin Grindeanu and supported by the Alliance of
Liberals and Democrats on Wednesday received Parliament’s vote of confidence
and were sworn in before president Klaus Iohannis. The new government has an
ambitious economic programme for the next four years aimed at improving the
business environment and people’s living standards. The measures envisaged
provide, among others, for salary increases, income tax and VAT cuts, reducing
bureaucracy, building new factories, motorways and high-speed rail tracks and
capitalising certain companies. President Klaus Iohannis has urged the new
Government to clearly maintain the country’s Euro-Atlantic orientation, support
the independence of the judiciary by consolidating the rule of law and make
sure that Romania continues to be a pillar of stability and security in the
region.

Amendments. The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest on Thursday approved two
amendments to the Tax Code to eliminate the health insurance contributions of
pensioners and exempt all pensions below 450 euros from income tax. The
amendments passed with 209 yes votes and 29 no votes. The Chamber of
Deputies is Parliament’s decision-making body.

Ombudsman. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday he was
outraged with the Ombudsman’s move to challenge in the Constitutional Court a
law from 2001 stipulating that people with criminal convictions or who find
themselves in a situation of incompatibility cannot hold government positions.
Ombudsman Victor Ciorbea says there are clear arguments against this provision.
The move comes after the leader of the Social Democratic Party and speaker of
the Chamber of Deputies Liviu Dragnea was unable to claim the position of prime
minister despite his party’s categorically winning the December elections. In
2016, he received a two-year suspended prison sentence for vote rigging during
a 2012 referendum on the impeachment of the then president Traian Basescu.

Protests. The
Hunedoara Energy Complex in south-western Romania is in a very difficult
financial situation and unless it starts making profit and curbing expenditure
it may go bankrupt, said the company’s deputy
director Petru Nica, a former trade union leader until the autumn of
2016. The employees of the Lupeni mine refuse to go into the mines and some of
them went on a hunger strike. They
demand the resignation of the current management and accuse Nica of abusive
behaviour.

Tennis. The Romanian-Ukrainian pair Raluca Olaru and Olga Savchuk
reached the doubles final of the WTA tournament in Shenzhen, China,
worth more than 625,000 dollars in prize money. They made it to the final following the
withdrawal of the pair seeded first, Raquel Atawo of the US and Yifan Xu of China. Olaru and
Savchuk will find out who their opponents are on Friday. This is the second WTA
final for Olaru and Savchuk after Taskent in 2008, when they won the title.

Weather. The weather will become extremely
cold in Romania, with lows of minus 15 degrees Celsius. A yellow code warning
is in place for heavy snowfalls in southern, eastern and central Romania, while
an orange code alert has been issued for blizzards in the south-east of the
country, including the capital Bucharest until Friday night. The eastern part
of Romania will be under a yellow code for snow and wind until Saturday.