December 4, 2019
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 04.12.2019, 14:03
London — During today’s meeting in London with the leaders of the other NATO states, the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will speak about Romania’s assessment of the security developments at regional and global level and will reiterate the importance of the Black Sea for the Alliance, the eastern flank and Romania. In another development, Klaus Iohannis will highlight the fact that Romania is determined to allot 2% of the GDP for defense just like Bulgaria, Greece, Great Britain and Poland. According to Radio Romania’s correspondent to London, a central issue of the summit in London is the fair sharing of responsibilities in the context in which only 9 of the 29 member states have allotted at least 2% of the GDP for defense. Other topics on the summit agenda are related to the consolidation of the NATO posture of defense and deterrence, the modernization of the Alliance, and the consolidation of cooperation with the EU. On Tuesday evening Klaus Iohannis participated in the reception hosted by Queen Elisabeth II at the Buckingham Palace.
Law – The Romanian Chamber of Deputies, a decision making body, on Wednesday adopted the bill for the abrogation of the compensatory appeal law with 272 votes for and 5 abstentions. The law was quite controversial because it allowed for the liberation of thousands of detainees ahead of due date. Some of them, who had been convicted for serious crimes, retuned to criminal behavior. The justice minister Catalin Predoiu explained recently that he was supporting the abrogation of the law, given that its wrong content endangered Romania’s citizens. He pointed out that the justice ministry representatives drafted a document including transitory measures to be applied in penitentiaries in the future. The bad conditions existing in penitentiaries generated lots of complaints at the European Court of Human Rights. The authorities mainly want to improve the quality of detention places.
PSD – The Social Democratic Party’s executive committee is meeting today for the first time after the election of an interim leadership. We recall that Viorica Dancila resigned from the position of leader after her failure in the recent presidential election won by Klaus Iohannis, supported by the National Liberal Party. This was the second electoral defeat of the Social Democrats after that in the EP elections of May 26. The congress of the PSD will be held in February.
Handball — Romania’s national women’s handball team were defeated for the 2nd time in Group C of the World Championship hosted by Japan 26-27 by Montenegro. In the previous matches the Romanian handballers lost to Spain and won against Senegal and Kazakhstan. To qualify to the main groups, Romania needs to defeat Hungary in the first leg. In the same group, Spain defeated Kazakhstan and will go further in the competition.
Statistics — In Romania, the costs employers had to pay for the labor force were higher this autumn by more than 13% as compared to last autumn. According to data made public on Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics the biggest increases of labor force costs were in the fields of education, constructions, professional, scientific and technical activities, hotels and restaurants, entertainment, culture and recreation. The aforementioned data also show that in the 3rd quarter of 2019 the costs employers had to pay for the labor force went up also against the previous quarter by over 2%. (translation by L. Simion)
