The Romanian Government is signing a memorandum with the World Bank in Bucharest on Monday meant to boost the efficiency of public administration and to support structural reforms. Under the partnership concluded with the WB, the public administration employees will be assessed, without the assessment involving layoffs. Also a continuous professional training system will be set up and mechanisms will be created in order to prevent corruption, the Romanian PM Dacian Ciolo\u015f explained. On Wednesday the Government will continue talks on the modifications of the new Fiscal Code. Talks will also focus on exempting people without incomes from paying contributions to the public healthcare system. <\/p>\n
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The new head of the IMF mission to Romania, Reza Baqir, will visit Bucharest between January 12 –15, in order to be introduced to the Romanian authorities, the IMF resident representative for Romania and Bulgaria, Guillermo Tolosa, has said today. He will replace Adrea Schaechter, the head of the IMF mission for Romania, Ukraine and Kosovo, who has ended her two-and-a-half-year mandate, in accordance with the common job rotation policies. Reza Baqir has been working for the IMF since 2000, as chief of the IMF\u2019s Debt Policy Division. <\/p>\n
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The Romanian ambassador to Oslo will hold talks on Wednesday with the representatives of the Norwegian Ministry of Children on the case of the 5 minors coming from a mixed Romanian-Norwegian family that were taken over by the Norwegian authorities and entrusted to a surrogate family. Thousands of Romanians from Romania and abroad have protested over the past days against this decision, which takes away from the natural family children aged between 4 months and 9 years old, claiming that their parents allegedly inflicted physical punishment on their children and tried to religiously indoctrinate them. <\/p>\n
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The Hungarian feature film \u201cSon of Saul\u201d featuring Romanian actor Levente Molnar, was awarded in Los Angeles the Golden Globe Award for \u201cBest Foreign Language Film\u201d. \u201cSon of Saul\u201d is Hungary\u2019s proposal for nomination to the category of best foreign film in a foreign language other than English to the 2016 Oscar Awards. It is the debut film of Hungarian director L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Nemes and it was awarded the jury\u2019s grand prize at last year\u2019s Cannes Festival Awards. In another move, the films \u201cThe Revenant\u201d by Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu and \u201cThe Martian\u201d by Ridley Scott won the best drama and best comedy awards. Actresses Brie Larson and Jennifer Lawrence and actors Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio are the winners of the Golden Globe Awards for best performance. <\/p>\n
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The German authorities publish on Monday the first detailed report on the investigation of the acts of violence perpetrated on the New Year\u2019s Eve night, which casts a shadow on Chancellor Angel Merkel\u2019s stand on the refugee issue, France Press reports. In parallel, in the evening, a manifestation against refugees and the German chancellor will be held in Leiptzig (in the east) by the local branch of the anti-Islam movement Pegida, after a similar protest was held in Cologne at the weekend, when the protesters clashed with the police. The number of complaints about the violent acts committed on the New Year\u2019s Eve night in Cologne reached, Sunday, 516, of which 40% were sexual assaults. Similar crimes took place on the New Year\u2019s Eve night in Hamburg as well. Most of the aggressors are of North African and Arabic origin, which fueled debates over the German chancellor\u2019s decision to receive more than one million immigrants in Germany in 2015. Criticized for her policy that favors asylum-seekers, Angela Merkel promised to toughen legislation in the field. <\/p>\n
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(News translated by Lacramioara Simion)<\/p>\n
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