June 9, 2021 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 09.06.2021, 20:38

LAW The Romanian government on Wednesday endorsed a law banning
the cumulated salaries and pensions for state employees. The draft also
provides for the optional increase of the pension age at 70. According to Prime
Minister Florin Citu, the draft will be submitted to Parliament under an emergency
procedure. Under the new law, pensioners, including former servicemen, may get
jobs in authority and public institutions, local or central, or in state
companies, but are no longer to receive pensions, only salaries. Also on
Wednesday, the government decided to extend the state of alert for another
month starting June 12th as well as the measures to be applied to prevent
and fight the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

VISIT Romania is a genuine friend of the Jewish
people and of Israel in the fight against anti-Semitism, Israeli president
Reuven Rivlin said in a speech he delivered before the Romanian Parliament on
Wednesday. He recalled that in January 2020, when world leaders marked in
Jerusalem 75 years since the liberation of the death camps of
Auschwitz and Birkenau, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis pledged to preserve the
memory of Holocaust and step up the fight against anti-Semitism, racism and
xenophobia. The Israeli president went on to say that his country cannot accept
attempts at undermining its right to exist through the illicit use of violent
means and by exploiting international law. Israel is Romania’s closest ally and
strategic partner in the Middle East and the Romanian-Israeli relations are
based on trust and durability, Senate President Anca Dragu said. Cooperation
between the two countries is based on a solid foundation of mutual respect and
deep friendship says Ludovic Orban, president of the Chamber of Deputies. A
Romania-Israel business forum was also hosted by the Bucharest Parliament on
Wednesday. President Rivlin has paid a formal visit to Romania. On Tuesday he
was received by the head of the Romanian state Klaus Iohannis and held talks
with the country’s Prime Minister, Florin Citu.

FILM Romanian director Alexander
Nanău’s film ‘Collective’ has been awarded the 2021 LUX Audience Award, the
president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli has announced in the
plenary session of the EU Legislature in Strasbourg. Two other films, ‘Another
Round’ and ‘Corpus Christi’ have also been shortlisted for the aforementioned
award, which is granted by the European Parliament and the European Film
Academy jointly with the European Commission and Europa Cinemas. During a news
conference in Strasbourg, the Romanian director has described the award as ‘a
bridge for a better communication between the European citizens and those
representing them in the European Parliament’.

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