May 31, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 31.05.2023, 20:00

EDUCATION The government’s new salary offer for teachers will be
presented to unions in an expedited procedure, so as to allow teachers to
decide on whether to continue the strike, the education union leaders announced
at the end of Wednesday’s negotiations. The government proposed a monthly gross
EUR 200 payment to teaching staff and EUR 80 for non-teaching staff in the
sector. An emergency order will also be passed, allowing entry-level teachers
to have a starting salary equal to the national average gross wage. The all-out
strike in Romanian undergraduate education has reached its 10th day.

MOLDOVA The Republic of Moldova Thursday hosts the European
Political Community Summit, attended by 50 heads of state and government. The
European Commission is represented by its president Ursula von der Leyen and
the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. The most important subjects on the
agenda of the summit are security, stability and cooperation in Europe. Also attending will be the
president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis. On
Tuesday, the EU Council decided to double the macro-financial aid for the
Republic of Moldova from EUR 150 to 295 million.

POLICE On Wednesday in Romania prison officers protested salary
levels and the working conditions. Penitentiary police workers say they work
extensive extra hours in order to make up for personnel shortages, and oppose
the planned increase of retirement age in the sector. Trade union
representatives had a meeting with the justice minister, who said the dialogue
was constructive and promised that the rights of prison officers will be
respected. Cătălin Predoiu added that in the following two years at most, up to
2,000 officers will be recruited in order to fill the vacancies in the penitentiary
system.

CHAMPIONSHIP The 2023 World Rescue Championship takes place in
Craiova, southern Romania, between June 1 and 4. This is the largest such event
of the International Canine Federation, with more than 60 search and rescue
dogs taking part, from 10 countries (Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Italy,
Japan, Romania, Slovenia, Ukraine and the Netherlands). The world’s top 19
teams will compete in various sections, including surface search for missing
persons, obedience and dexterity, and search for victims in the rubble.
Craiova is the first city in the world to have organised five World Rescue
Championships (2009, 2016, 2021, 2022, and 2023).

GRAIN EU agriculture ministers meeting in the AGRIFISH council have
not managed to unblock 100 million euros worth of aid for farmers affected by
Ukraine’s export of cheap grain. Romania is one of the five countries that may
benefit from the aid and it stands to receive around EUR 30 million. The
European commissioner for agriculture Ianusz Wojciechowski gave assurances that
the aid will be unblocked and the situation monitored. He said he was not in
favour of using the EU budget to buy Ukrainian grain to be supplied to the
world food programme because the cost would be three times that of the cereals
themselves. He believes the money would be better used, in the long term, to
improve the infrastructure, for example that of Romania, and said he would have
talks in this regard with the European commissioner for transport and
infrastructure Adina Vălean.

TENNIS The only Romanian
athlete left in the Roland Garros competition, Irina Begu, Wednesday defeated
Italy’s Sara Errani, in 2 sets, 6 – 3, 6 – 0. On Tuesday, Sorana Cirstea was
kicked out of the competition by another Italian player, Jasmine Paolini. Also
on Tuesday, the Canadian athlete Bianca Andreescu won against Victoria
Azarenka (Belarus) in 3 sets. (AMP)