November 27, 2023
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 27.11.2023, 13:55
Budget. The Bucharest government will continue this week to build the state budget for 2024. The main challenges are related to pension increases and large investment projects. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu says the new pension law is sustainable and that next years budget will be able to increase pensions twice, starting January 1st by 13.8 percent and by recalculation until September 1st. The continuation of large investment projects is the priority of the government and for the 2024 budget, the Minister of Finance, Marcel Boloş, has also stressed. According to the minister, the budget of the Ministry of Education will benefit from a very large increase next year, especially to finance the investment projects that are included in the NRRP. At the same time, this budget must also cover the salary increase that the government promised to end the general strike that blocked the education system in June. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that the new single salary law will apply from 2025, but until then the salaries in Education must be increased by a part of what was promised. The representatives of the government and those of the Education trade unions are resuming negotiations today on the topic of raising the salaries in education starting January 1. The trade unionists claim that this increase could be 20% and say that if they do not reach an agreement with the government representatives, they will communicate the forms of protest they will use.
Gaza. In Gaza, today is the last of the four days of the ceasefire, but Hamas has said it wants to extend this period, and Israel has given signals that it is willing to accept this. Hamas should, however, release 10 hostages for each day of the truce extension, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We recall that the terrorist group took 240 hostages on October 7, when it launched a massive terrorist attack, resulting in 1,200 deaths in Israel. Israel retaliated with an air and ground campaign that has killed 14,800 Palestinians so far, according to medical sources in Gaza. Following the cease-fire agreement that came into force on Friday, Hamas released 58 hostages, both Israelis and citizens of other countries. In return, Israel released Palestinian prisoners, and humanitarian aid entered Gaza. Two hostages with dual citizenship, Israeli and Romanian, were released from the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest announced on Sunday. Four people with dual citizenship, Israeli and Romanian, are still hostages in Gaza. In this context, the MFA reiterates the need to release all the hostages and welcomes the diplomatic efforts of the USA, the State of Qatar and the Arab Republic of Egypt. The Embassy of Romania in Tel Aviv and the Consulate General of Romania in Haifa maintain contact with the Israeli authorities.
NATO. The Romanian Minister of National Defense, Angel Tîlvăr, is participating, between November 27-29, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in the Conference on NATOs equipping with ammunition and missiles. The program of the visit also includes meetings with his British counterpart, Hon Grant Shapps, and the British Minister of State for Defense Procurement James Cartlidge. Also, the Romanian official will have talks with the head of Defense in Great Britain, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin. The discussion agendas related to the bilateral meetings include topics related to the security situation in the Black Sea region, in the context of Russias war of aggression in Ukraine, cooperation within the North Atlantic Alliance with regard to implementing the decisions of the NATO Summit in Vilnius, current and future aspects regarding bilateral cooperation between the two armies, with emphasis on the endowment programs of the Romanian Army.
Strike. In Romania, the employees of the institutions subordinated to the Ministry of Labor are going on a general strike starting today. They demanded the elimination of salary inequities, but also better working conditions. The Federation of Trade Unions in the relevant ministry specified that, through this approach, the employees in the system want to draw attention to the problems they face. The organization added that, following the Government meeting at the end of last week, no solution was presented regarding the employees claims.
Gaudeamus. In Bucharest, almost 100,000 people visited the 30th edition of the Gaudeamus Radio Romania Book Fair, which ended on Sunday evening with the awarding of trophies. The most coveted book of the Gaudeamus Fair was designated “More than the past”, by Ana Blandiana, from the Humanitas Publishing House. Also by public vote, the best publishing houses of this edition at Gaudeamus were designated Humanitas, Litera and Polirom. The prize for translation from Romanian into a foreign language was won by Şerban Foarţă for the volume of bilingual Romanian-German poems “Schlimmericks”, and the prize for translation from a foreign language into Romanian was awarded to Alexandra Coliban for the translation from English of the novel “Crossroads” by Jonathan Franzen. The Book Fair hosted, for five days, over 500 publishing events. The honorary president of the edition was the writer and literary critic Ion Bogdan Lefter. (MI)
