October 25, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 25.10.2023, 20:00

GOVERNMENT The government of
Romania is ready to pass an emergency order on new minimum wages in
constructions, agriculture and the food industry, PM Marcel Ciolacu announced.
He made the statement after a meeting with trade unions and employer
associations. Both in terms of the new minimum salary in constructions (around
EUR 920) and of the ones in agriculture and the food industry (roughly EUR
690), not a penny of the net wages is being cut, Marcel Ciolacu explained. On the other hand, the government drafted an order on
reducing public sector expenditure at the end of this year.

EU The president of
Romania, Klaus Iohannis, takes part on Thursday and Friday in the meeting of
the European Council and the inclusive Euro Summit meeting in Brussels, the
Romanian presidency announced. The agenda of the European Council meeting
includes topics like the situation in Ukraine, updating the Multi-Annual
Financial Framework, economic issues, migration management and the EU foreign
relations, with a focus on the situation in the Middle East, Kosovo and Serbia,
and the developments in the Sahel region. As far as Ukraine is concerned, the
EU leaders will also discuss the Union’s multidimensional support. President Iohannis
will emphasise that Romania will remain a firm supporter of Ukraine and will
plead for further support from the European bloc to that country for as long as
necessary. Mr. Iohannis will also support opening accession negotiations with Ukraine
and the R. of Moldova by the end of this year. At the Euro Summit, the
participants will discuss the economic situation in the EU.

REVOLUTION The case
file concerning the December 1989 anti-communist uprising will be tried on its
substance, the Bucharest Court of Appeals ruled after the magistrates dismissed
all the objections made by the defendants. The decision is not final and may be
challenged. The defendants in the so-called Revolution case include the
former president Ion Iliescu, former deputy PM Gelu Voican Voiculescu and the
retired general Iosif Rus, indicted by military prosecutors for crimes against
humanity committed between December 22 and 30, 1989, when over 1,000 people died and some 3,000
were wounded. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country where the communist
regime ended in violence and the communist leaders Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu
were executed.

ARMY DAY In all military units in
Romania and theatres of operations where Romanian troops are deployed, ceremonies
were held on Wednesday to mark the Romanian Army Day. In Bucharest, president
Klaus Iohannis said this is a very complicated period, with global peace and
security threatened by regional conflicts. Europe is facing the worst crisis
since WWII because of Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine, while the
October 7 terrorist attack on Israel might destabilise the Middle East in the
long run, Iohannis added. In turn, PM Marcel Ciolacu said Romania’s NATO
membership is a guarantee that the security of Romanian citizens will never
come under threat. The defence minister Angel Tîlvăr pointed out that the
Romanian Army has risen to NATO standards in many respects, and added that
earmarking 2% of GDP since 2017 and 2.5% of GDP this year to the defence sector
enabled the implementation of ambitious procurement programmes. Meanwhile, the
Romanian troops’ participation in UN, EU and NATO missions over the past
decades has strengthened Romania’s security profile, Angel Tîlvăr added.

ISRAEL Israel has demanded the resignation of the UN Secretary General, Antonio
Guterres, over accusations of justifying terrorism and the crimes committed by
Hamas. Guterres said in a Security Council meeting that the attacks of Hamas on
Israel did not happen without reason. He made it clear, however, that the
suffering of the Palestinians in what he called 56 years of suffocating
occupation cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas, just as these
attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. On
Wednesday, Israel accepted a request from the US to delay its invasion of Gaza
for the time being, so that the US may bring missile defence in the region, US
and Israeli officials announced, quoted by the Wall Street Journal. The United
States says it will work with China to de-escalate the situation in the Middle
East. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he would work with
the Chinese foreign minister, who is travelling to Washington at the end of this
week, to prevent the conflict from expanding. The president of France, Emmanuel
Macron, Wednesday concluded his two-day tour to the Middle East, which included
Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. His message was unambiguous, calling
for preventing a spill-over of the conflict, for freeing the hostages taken by
the terrorist group Hamas and for aid for the Palestinians in Gaza. (AMP)