April 6, 2016 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 06.04.2016, 12:31

The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest on Wednesday ruled out the simple motion tabled by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania entitled Human Rights Arent a Luxury Asset against Justice Minister Raluca Pruna. The signatories of the document have called for Prunas resignation, whom they criticized for the statements she made against the citizens fundamental rights, after the government had passed an ordinance regulating wiretapping in criminal files. Raluca Pruna said the discussion on human rights is a theoretical luxury in a state weakened by corruption and where the fight against organised crime is inefficient.

State employees with low salaries in Romania are expected to get a pay rise in the second half of this year through an emergency ordinance. The new drafts main aim is to correct dysfunctional payment, which happened gradually due to rises in the minimum wages and compressed wage distribution. The draft under discussion is to be endorsed by the executive next week, after talks between the labour minister and social partners. The executive is to endorse in the following weeks a draft on payment with a multianual approach as of 2018, a spokesperson for the government has announced. A unitary paying system has been envisaged but it has to be corroborated with a law package on the administration reform.

The head of Romanias Anticorruption Agency DNA, Laura Codruta Kovesi on Wednesday confirmed that she had been subjected to a foiled intimidation attempt. Prosecutors with the Direction for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) have announced that two employees of an Israeli information company were taken into custody on Sunday for having attempted to compromise the DNA chief-prosecutor. The two have been charged with setting up an organized crime ring, trying to get into an information system, unauthorized data transfer and attempted alteration of data. According to prosecutors, in the month of March the two made several phone calls to threaten the DNA official at the same time mounting phishing attacks with a view to getting information from e-mail accounts of Kovesis entourage. The Israeli embassy in Bucharest on Wednesday said the Israeli authorities arent involved in the case presented in the Romanian media on attempts of intimidating the head of the DNA by former Israeli information officers. The embassy specified that investigation in this case concerns employees of a private Israeli company.

Three Romanian handballers, Cristina Neagu currently playing for Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro), Oana Manea of CSM Bucharest and Eliza Buceschi of Thuriger (Germany) have been nominated for the Champions Leagues best team, following a survey conducted by the competitions official webpage. The players have been selected by taking into account the shows they put on this season as well as the number of goals scored, passes or the shots they blocked on the defence line. The teams final lineup will be established by means of votes from fans on the competitions official site between April 5th and May 3rd.

The European Union on Wednesday came up with proposals on reforming asylum-granting procedures in response to the refugee crisis, which has recently revealed the weak points of this policy. Under the present European legislation, immigrants must apply for asylum in the first EU country they arrive in. Now the European Commission has called on member countries to consider two options, either to reform the present system by adding an emergency mechanism, under which other EU members may accept the relocation of refugees if some members cannot cope with the refugee inflow, or to completely cancel this regulation. In the second case, the Commission proposes the setting up of a permanent system of redistributing asylum-seekers according to the GDP, the size of certain states and their refugee-absorbing capacity. The European Commission wants its proposals to materialize by the month of June. The European Commission on Wednesday also came up with a series of technical measures to strengthen border security and cooperation in terms of data exchange. The new system is to be implemented by 2020.