September 29, 2023
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 29.09.2023, 13:55
Notification — The Save Romania Union — USR and the Force of the Right, in opposition, intend to notify the Constitutional Court today about the coalition (PSD-PNL) governments taking responsibility for the package of fiscal-budgetary measures. The two parties claim that there are numerous violations of the fundamental law in the government’s document. The USR leader, Cătălin Drula, claims that principles of fiscal responsibility were allegedly violated. Moreover, the notification to the Constitutional Court will also include the observations of the experts of the Justice Ministry regarding the Governments measures, which minister Alina Gorghiu would have ignored when she issued a favorable opinion for the legislative proposal, Catalin Drula said. Initially, the opposition evoked a censure motion, and today is the last day when they could submit it, but it is unlikely that they will be able to collect the required number of signatures.
Conference — The Speaker of the Romanian Senate, Nicolae Ciucă, is participating also today in the Conference of Presidents of Parliaments from the 46 member states of the Council of Europe, organized in Ireland, Dublin. On the eve, he had said that populism harmed democracy and endangered the civil rights of all. According to the Romanian Senate Speaker, in the context of the war on Romania’s border, the role of national parliaments in the reconstruction of Ukraine and the challenges to representative democracy in unstable times are topics of great interest for Romania, as an EU and NATO member country. He also spoke about Romanias role in supporting neighboring Ukraine, from where more than five million refugees came
Meeting – The Romanian Foreign Minister, Luminiţa Odobescu, is participating, today, in the meeting of the heads of diplomatic missions from the EU member states accredited to Bucharest, organized by the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. On the eve, the Romanian FM took part in the opening of the second edition of the international Euro-Atlantic Forum for Resilience, with the theme Resilience at Sea and its Impact on Land. She emphasized the relevance of the Black Sea region in the context of the Russian Federations war of aggression in Ukraine, a region with a special geopolitical significance, located at the epicenter of this conflict. Minister Odobescu stated that Romania acted and will continue to act in coordination with the neighboring states and strategic partners, so as to facilitate the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products through the Romanian ports.
Gas – Natural gas and electricity tariffs on the Romanian market will continue to be subsidized until the end of March 2025, the National Energy Regulatory Authority -ANRE announced. Thus, Romanians will pay 68 bani (13 euro cents) per kilowatt for a monthly consumption of up to 100 kilowatts, 80 bani (16 euro cents) for a consumption range of 100-255 kilowatt, 1.3 lei (26 euro cents) for a consumption between 255 and 300 kilowatts, and for what exceeds 300 kilowatts – 1.3 lei for the entire amount. In the case of gas, the price for one kilowatt/hour will not exceed 31 bani (6 eurocents). The ANRE representative, Valeriu Steriu, stated that this measure brings predictability and is “a safety net” for the population and industrial consumers. He showed that the total amount reimbursed by the Romanian state to the energy companies that applied the capped price scheme, was almost 21 billion lei (about 4.2 billion euros) two weeks ago. Meanwhile, the Transgaz National Company announced that it has already stored an amount of gas that exceeds 96% of the total storage capacity. (LS)
