January 10, 2014 UPDATE
Romania’s Constitutional Court decided on Friday that the decentralization law is unconstitutional, since it does not clearly establish the competences of institutions and infringes the ownership right, as the annexes to the law do not make a clear distinction between public and private property. The Court’s decision is definitive and generally compulsory. In November 2013 the Government asked for Parliament’s vote of confidence on this bill. The fields that were to be decentralized were agriculture, healthcare, the environment, culture, youth and sports, authorization and facilitation in tourism, sports clubs and bases, schools and fishing related territorial attributions.
România Internațional, 10.01.2014, 20:16
Romania’s Constitutional Court decided on Friday that the decentralization law is unconstitutional, since it does not clearly establish the competences of institutions and infringes the ownership right, as the annexes to the law do not make a clear distinction between public and private property. The Court’s decision is definitive and generally compulsory. In November 2013 the Government asked for Parliament’s vote of confidence on this bill. The fields that were to be decentralized were agriculture, healthcare, the environment, culture, youth and sports, authorization and facilitation in tourism, sports clubs and bases, schools and fishing related territorial attributions.
As of Friday, Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State is paying a two-day visit to Bucharest, part of a European tour, which will also take her to other USs allies in NATO, such as the Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania and France. The US official will hold talks with Romania’s president Traian Basescu, high-ranking officials and representatives of civil society. High on the talks agenda are bilateral relations, regional problems and efforts to consolidate the rule of law in Romania.
The Romanian Defence Minister, Mircea Dusa, on Friday said that only a 200 strong Romanian contingent will remain in Afghanistan as of October this year to train the Afghan army. At present Romania has 1000 military deployed to that country, most of whom are operating in the south of the country, which is considered a Taliban stronghold. NATO is to end its mission in this country at the end of the year.
The European Commission will continue discussions with the Ukrainian authorities about reforming the energy sector and took note of Ukraine’s intention to import natural gas only from the Russian Federation, at a smaller price than the European one. This statement was made by the European Commissioner for Energy, Sabine Berger. In 2012 Ukraine had started buying natural gas from Europe with a view to reducing its dependence on Gazprom.
As of July the 1st employers in Romania will pay social security contributions smaller by 5%, Finance Minister Liberal Daniel Chitoiu has announced. According to Chitoiu, such a measure has become possible thanks to an improved tax-collecting system. In another move the Liberals, part of the ruling coalition, intend to eliminate taxes on reinvested profit, if the government’s economic calculation allows for this.
