7 December 2019, UPDATE

A roundup of the main stories in Romania today.

Newsroom, 07.12.2019, 19:30

Government. The Romanian prime minister Ludovic Orban has announced that
his cabinet will next Tuesday ask Parliament for a vote of confidence on a
number of important bills, including those on budget caps and the amendment of
the justice laws. The Liberal prime minister says the budget cap law is
necessary to finalise the state and social security budget bill. The amendment
of the justice laws refers to the prorogation of the deadlines for the early
retirement of magistrates, the transition from two to three-judge panels and
the seniority required for becoming a magistrate. In another move, the
government has adopted a bill on the government’s ability to issue emergency
orders while Parliament breaks up for the winter holidays. The government will
thus be able to issue simple orders in areas that are not covered by organic
laws, between Parliament’s final session this year and its first session next
year. The areas in question are public finance, economy, energy and business,
public works, development and administration, home affairs, transport,
infrastructure and communications, culture, European funds and healthcare.

Revolution. A series of events
celebrating the 30th anniversary of the December anticommunist
revolution has begun in Timisoara, in the west of the country. Over the course
of two weeks, marches will be held following the routes of the Revolution, as
well as remembrance services and tributes to those who died, festive
assemblies, conferences, exhibitions, concerts, book launches and events
dedicated to the young generations in order to keep alive the memory of those who
sacrificed their lives to freedom. 17th of December will be a day of
mourning and on the 20th of December the events will feature
festivities and grandiose concerts dedicated to the day 30 years ago when
Timisoara became the first city in Romania to declare itself free of communism.

Colectiv trial. The Bucharest
Tribunal is expected on Monday to issue the first ruling in a trial that began
in the aftermath of a fire that broke out in October 2015 at the Bucharest club
Colectiv and in which 65 people were killed and several hundred wounded. On
trial are the club’s owners, the fire safety people who inspected the club, the
former mayor of the sector where the club was located and representatives of
the company that installed the fireworks that caused the fire. Friday saw the
hearing of the former health minister Nicolae Banicioiu as part of
investigations into how the Romanian authorities acted in the immediate
aftermath of the fire. Baniciou said at the time that the Romanian authorities
did not need help from abroad to treat the wounded. A year later, the parents
of the victims filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor General’s Office
in which a number of government and health officials were blamed for the
authorities’ handling of the situation. The Prosecutor General’s Office opened
a criminal investigation for aggravated manslaughter, abuse of office and
negligence in employment with respect to the authorities’ intervention.

Migration. More than 3.1 million workable
Romanian citizens aged between 15 and 64 had their residence in EU member
states or members of the European Free Trade Association, namely Switzerland,
Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, according to a Eurostat report looking at
2018. Their number exceeded by around 200,000 that reported in 2017, thus
reflecting the biggest rise from one year to the next in respect of population
migration within the EU. The countries in the following positions are Italy,
with a migration of 72,000, Bulgaria, with 46,900 and Greece with 39,100. The National
Institute for Statistics showed that in August, Romania continued to be an
emigration country, with over 238,000 Romanians leaving the country in 2018.