July 5, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 05.07.2023, 20:00

CVM – The
European Commission notified the European Council and the European Parliament
over its plan to shut down the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) for
Romania and Bulgaria, which will be replaced by an annual report on the rule of
law. The announcement was made on Wednesday by the European Commissioner for
Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, who expressed confidence the mechanism
will be lifted this year. In the last CVM report for Bulgaria, which was in
2019, and Romania in 2022, the Commission already concluded that Bulgaria and
Romania have made sufficient progress in meeting the commitments made at the
time of their accession to the EU and that all CVM benchmarks have been
satisfactorily met, Jourová said. In its rule of law report published on
Wednesday, the Commission recommends Romania take measures at operational level
to respond to remaining concerns related to the investigation and trial of
justice-related criminal offenses, including corruption. At the same time, the
Commission says Romania has reported significant progress in strengthening
instruments that ensure the independence of the judiciary and tackle
operational challenges of the National Anticorruption Directorate.

VISIT -
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu’s visit to Germany continued on
Wednesday with a meeting with representatives of the German business sector.
The Romanian official later met the vice-president of the Bundestag, Katrin
Göring-Eckardt, as well as members of the main parliamentary factions. Marcel
Ciolacu highlighted the importance of bilateral cooperation and the significant
potential it offers, considering Germany is Romania’s top trade partner.
Germany has expressed an interest to invest in the Romanian petrochemical sector,
given the discovery of new gas deposits in Romania, as well as in the Romanian
raw materials industry, in the context of the upcoming effort to reconstruct
Ukraine. The Romanian Prime Minister pointed out Romania has numerous
resources, as well as energy projects that should ensure Romania plays a key
role in securing stability in the region, also underlining Romania’s potential
in the agricultural sector. Also on Wednesday, Prime Minister Ciolacu met with
representatives of the German defense sector. On the first day of his visit on
Tuesday, Marcel Ciolacu met Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who reiterated his
country’s support for Romania’s Schengen accession in 2023.

EDUCATION -
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday promulgated the new Education laws.
A former high-school teacher, Iohannis, has been promoting a programme known as
‘Educated Romania’ launched in 2016 and followed by a series of public debates.
Solutions have been proposed for fighting school violence in the country’s
pre-university education, to support the disadvantaged categories of students,
curb school dropout and promote sports. Concerning university education,
president Iohannis says the new legislative measures are going to bring the
Romanian education up to international standards. The education laws have been
promulgated after years of debates and at the end of a critical period in
Romania’s education system, marked by the recent all-out strike of the
teachers. In another development, upon the appeals session for the National Assessment
exam counting towards the candidates’ high-school accession, 76.4% of the
students have obtained passing results while 73% of the candidates have passed
the baccalaureate exam.

PROTEST -
The Health Solidarity Federation announced new protests, including a work-in
strike in several medical units on Thursday. Federation representatives want
the government to modify the emergency decree passed last week so as to fully
enforce the salary law for all health workers and increase salaries. The Federation
wants real salary raises, based on last week’s decree, and the proper
conditions to allow for this pay rise. Nearly 1,400 physicians want to
terminate their on-call work agreements and some 6,400 employees want to give
up shift work and legal holidays work schedules, the Federation also claims.

GAUDEAMUS -
The first summer edition of the book fair Gaudeamus Radio Romania kicked off in
Brașov, central Romania. The event is part of the Gaudeamus caravan, a
nationwide project that has been initiated and carried on by Radio Romania for
more than 20 years. The present edition’s offer includes, the book fair itself,
graphic and photo art, literary creation, all brought together into 40
exhibition stands. This edition is expected to end on Sunday, July 9. (DB &
VP)