January 20, 2016

EU earmarks funds for BRUA pipeline; special pensions for local officials ruled unconstitutional

Newsroom, 20.01.2016, 12:00

DIPLOMACY – The PM of Romania, Dacian Cioloş, is on a two-day visit to Paris, as of today, at the invitation of the French President Francois Hollande. The main topics of the talks with the French officials are the privileged traditional relations between Romania and France, the means to step up projects in the roadmap of the bilateral strategic partnership, to encourage economic relations and strengthen contacts with the business communities. The parties will also discuss topics on the international and European agenda, like terrorism, migration and the EU security policy. Also today, Dacian Cioloş will have meetings with the Romanian students at the Political Science University and with members of the Romanian community in France. On Thursday, Ciolos is scheduled to meet managers of major French corporations and to have official talks at the French National Assembly.

ENERGY – The BRUA pipeline, which will connect the natural gas networks of Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, is a major Romanian contribution to enhancing the security of the EU natural gas supplies, by diversifying sources for Central Europe, says the Romanian Ministry of Energy. The Connecting Europe Facility-Energy Committee in the European Commission Tuesday validated the allocation of 179 million euros for the works to be carried out by the Romanian company Transgaz on the national natural gas transport system in view of the development of the BRUA pipeline. The Commission said the BRUA inter-connector is a key step to the development of the EU natural gas market, in that it will enable natural gas to reach Central Europe from the Caspian region and other sources. For 2014-2020, the Commission has earmarked 5.3 billion euro for the trans-European energy infrastructure.

LEGISLATION – The Constitutional Court of Romania ruled on Wednesday that the law giving special pension benefits to local elected officials is against the Constitution, as notified by the Government. The Court has found that the law is unclear, it discriminates between elected officials and fails to indicate the financing sources. On December 26, 2015, the Government notified the Court that some provisions in the law apparently breach the Constitution, in that they regulate privileges for certain local elected officials, they give special rights retroactively and fail to specify financing sources for the new benefits. The Government warned that there are at least 16,300 potential beneficiaries of the law, and the budgetary strain in 2016 may affect the stability of the fiscal-budgetary framework.

MOLDOVA – The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova convenes
today in a special meeting to vote on the governmental team put together by
the PM designate Pavel Filip, the Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu told
Moldpres news agency. He said Filip has already presented the governmental team
and the governing programme. The Democrat Pavel Filip, incumbent Minister of
Information and Communications, was designated last week to form a new
government, supported by a Parliamentary majority made up of Democrats, Liberals,
former Communists and a group of Liberal-Democrats.

MIGRANT CRISIS – The European Commission is considering measures to distribute migrants more fairly across EU Member states, news agencies report. The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, told the European Parliament on Tuesday that the Union has two months to bring the migrant crisis under control, otherwise the Schengen visa-free region may collapse. Donald Tusk also estimated that the EU as a political project would fail unless it manages to manage its external borders properly. He discussed strengthening border controls and stepping up the establishment of reception centres in Greece and Italy, where migrants will be classed as either economic migrants, to be repatriated, or refugees to be sent to Member States under the compulsory quota rules. Yesterday in Prague, the interior ministers of the Visegrad Group (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), reiterated their opposition to the compulsory quotas and asked for the set-up of efficient ‘hotspot’ centres. According to the figures proposed by the European Commission, Romania is to receive a total 6,351 refugees.

WEATHER – After snowfalls and blizzard, Romania is facing extreme cold. The capital city Bucharest and 19 counties in the south and centre are until tomorrow morning under a code-yellow warning against extremely low temperatures. Last night at Întorsura Buzăului, in the central-eastern part of the country, a temperature of minus 29.5 degrees Celsius was reported. The noon reading in Bucharest today was minus 9 degrees Celsius. The National Meteorology Agency has issued a code-yellow alert for low temperatures in place as of Thursday until early next week. Well have more on this after the news.

(translation by: Ana Maria Popescu)