December 27, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 27.12.2023, 19:08

GOVERNMENT.
The Bucharest government is going to amend the recently adopted emergency
ordinance that reduces public spending from January 1. The Finance Ministry is
expected to come up with a new draft ordinance, which stipulates, among the new
fiscal-budgetary measures, the exemption of certain categories of public
servants from the 5% salary increase planned for 2024. The Finance Ministry
employees and the Ministry’s subordinate institutions are among them. Also, the
judicial staff that benefited from a salary increase in 2023 will not receive a
new one. Not even the teaching staff can get an additional 5% above the 20%
increase included in the Education Ministry’s budget. The employees with the
Ministry of Finance, Customs and Fiscal Administration affiliated with the
Meridian trade union were on a token strike on Wednesday to protest against
their exclusion from the 5% increase in the basic salary from next year. Trade
union leaders say that if the government adopts the emergency order, they are
ready to stage other forms of protest

POLICE. Last
week, the Romanian police and partners from the states in the European free
movement area caught more than 800 people, following alerts from the Schengen
Information System. This year, more than 1,000 people were brought from abroad
to Romanian prisons, of whom more than 700 are fugitives already convicted by
Court. All others committed crimes abroad, but asked to serve their sentence in
their home country. In order to discourage convicts from fleeing the country,
the Romanian Ministry of Justice initiated a bill called the
fugitives’ law, adopted in November by the Chamber of Deputies but challenged
in the Constitutional Court, where it will be debated on January 31. After the
law comes into force, fugitives will have a new sentence added to the existing
one, of 6 to 36 months in prison.

LOAN. The
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to provide a 30.8 million
dollar loan for the construction, equipment and operation of an overhead power
line between Suceava, in northern Romania, and Bălţi, in the Republic of
Moldova. The committee for foreign policy and European integration of the
Moldovan parliament on Wednesday advised in favour of starting talks to conclude
a loan agreement between Moldova and the EBRD to finalise the second stage of
the power line. According to Radio Chisinau, this loan will cover 40% of the
total cost of the project, with the rest to come from the European Investment
Bank and the European Union. (CM)