March 1, 2024

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 01.03.2024, 13:55

VISIT – Romanian Senate Speaker Nicolae Ciucă is today paying an official visit to Moldova for talks with the pro-European administration. Nicolae Ciucă will meet Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu, as well as Moldovan president Maia Sandu. Ciucă and Grosu will plant saplings in the Botanical Gardens in Chișinău. Yesterday, Nicolae Ciucă congratulated the Moldovan leadership for their “responsible and balanced approach to security issues, particularly at a time ridden with regional challenges”, a reference to the war in neighboring Ukraine.

STATISTICS – Romania has a record-high number of 5.75 million employees, former Labor Minister Marius Budăi has said, claiming that “public investment and state subsidies have helped create new jobs and ensure decent wages”. The net average salary in Romania has exceeded 1,000 EUR, the Social-Democrat politician says.

ELECTION – Candidates in the European Parliament election can also enroll in the local election, according to a draft emergency decree on the joint organization of the two ballots, recently launched for debate by the Interior Ministry. The elections will be held on June 9. To prevent two officials from holding office at the same time, the mandates of newly elected mayors will be validated on September 27, when the mandate of the current local officials is set to expire. At the same time, acting mayors and county council presidents will be allowed to run on behalf of a political party other than the one they represented in the previous round of election. The PSD-PNL government says the joint organization of local and European Parliament elections will ensure greater participation in the European ballot and help curb public spending. We recall the presidential election will be held in September whereas the parliamentary election has been slated for December.

MEETINGS – Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu will attend the Party of European Socialists Congress, hosted by Rome on Friday and Saturday. The Congress is expected to adopt the joint Socialist platform ahead of the European Parliament election and designate the candidate for the European Commission presidency. A meeting of the European S&D Group will be held in Bucharest in April. Next week, the Romanian Liberal Party is also expected to host the European People’s Party Congress, to be attended by some 2,000 participants.

OECD – The OECD has this week given its first formal approval regarding Romania’s bid to join the OECD, the Romanian Finance Ministry reports. The Working Party of Senior Budget Officials conducted a review of Romania’s progress on December 19, 2023. At the time, the Finance Ministry presented the reforms Romania has undertaken to align its economic policies to OECD standards and practices in the field of budget governance. Being part of the OECD is not just about having access to top-quality expertise in a large array of fields, but also comes with opportunities, such as attracting foreign investment, boosting innovation and competitiveness, Finance Minister Marcel Boloș said.

NAVALNY – The Russian police are patrolling the Moscow cemetery where the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, is expected to be entombed later today. The funeral is held two weeks since Navalny died in a Siberian prison. His death generated suspicion and allegations from his supporters and some Western leaders, who accuse Vladimir Putin of being responsible for the death of Alexei Navalny, commonly seen as the Kremlin’s public enemy no. 1. The Kremlin denied all accusations. A climate of fear now reins in Russia, with Moscow harshly punishing opponents and critics, although it is unclear how many Russians will come to pay their respects, whether they will be allowed inside the church and how security forces will ensure crowd control, international media writes.

MĂRȚIȘOR – Romanians celebrate the coming of spring on March 1, also known as Mărțișor. The symbol of this popular holiday is the March trinket, usually an item of jewelry accompanied by a red and white string. Traditions associated with Mărțișor were inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017. (VP)