GOVERNMENT – The minority
\nLiberal government in Bucharest on Thursday asked Parliament for a vote of
\nconfidence on three bills referring to the amendment of the justice laws, free
\nlocal road transport for pupils, pensioners and people with disabilities, and
\nto the budget caps on next year’s spending. Given that the Senate already
\napproved on Wednesday some of the justice amendments proposed by the
\ngovernment, namely postponing by two years the early retirement of magistrates
\nand by one year the transition to three-panel judges, the government says it
\nwill only ask for a vote of confidence on the postponement of the increase in
\nthe length of service required to enter the magistracy. Unless a no-confidence
\nmotion is filed within the next three days, the bills proposed by the
\ngovernment will come into force as soon they are signed into law by the
\npresident. The Social-Democratic Party in opposition announced it would notify
\nthe Constitutional Court over the first bill for which the Orban Cabinet has
\nasked Parliament’s vote of confidence, the one modifying the justice laws
\nregarding the seniority requirements for being admitted to the National
\nMagistracy Institute, saying this was unnecessary. <\/p>\n
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EU COUNCIL – The EU
\nmulti-annual budget, its efforts to combat climate change and Brexit are the
\nmain subjects discussed by the European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday
\nin Brussels. Romania is represented by president Klaus Iohannis, who upon his
\narrival said he disagrees with the Finnish presidency’s proposal regarding the
\nupcoming multiannual financial framework, saying that too little money is being
\nallotted to the cohesion policy. President Iohannis said the agenda includes
\nother complicated topics as well, such as climate change. In that respect the
\nEU wants to introduce an ambitious goal, climate neutrality, to be implemented
\nby 2050, which would be very complicated for East-European economies. Such
\nexpenses should be covered by the EU budget as well, so talks won’t be simple,
\nKlaus Iohannis said. <\/p>\n
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AIR FORCE -
\nRomania is to purchase another five F-16 fighter jets from Portugal, with the
\nsame configuration as the 12 that are already in the possession of the Romanian
\nAir Forces. MPs have adopted a bill on the continuation of the multiroll
\naircraft programme. The bill also provides for the modernization of all of the
\nRomanian Army’s F-16 jets. The bill has been backed by all parliamentary groups
\nand the defence minister has hailed the passing of the law.<\/p>\n
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MIGRATION – Over 4%
\nof Romania’s population has left the country in the last four years, the
\nvice-president of the Romanian Center for Integration, Ioan Puhace, said on
\nThursday on the sidelines of the conference titled Legal Migration in 2020 -
\nChallenges and Opportunities on the Labor Market ahead of a new Migration Boom.
\nThe Romanian official said solutions need to be found regarding the development
\nof the labor market. One such solution is legal migration. Ioan Puhace explained
\nRomanian employers are constantly looking for workforce, and as such there
\nneeds to be flexibility in terms of migration. In turn, the vice-president of
\nthe European Union of SMEs, Florin Jianu, pointed out that right now, Romania
\nhas a labor force shortage of approximately one million people. It is his
\nopinion that Romania can attract workers from areas with Romanian-speaking
\npopulations, such as Serbia, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. <\/p>\n
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STRIKES IN FRANCE
\n– Public transport in France was again disrupted on Thursday by strikes in
\nresponse to the government’s intention to reform the pensions system. Most
\ntrade unionists are categorically opposed to the replacement of the current
\nsystem. Prime Minister \u00c9douard Philippe on Wednesday made public the pensions
\nreform bill, which is to apply fully beginning in 2022. He said the new system
\nmaintains the retirement age at 62, but that the government will encourage employees
\nnot to retire by means of a system of reductions and bonuses.<\/p>\n
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ISRAEL – In Israel,
\nBenjamin Netanyahu remains the prime minister of an interim government after
\nthe Knesset has voted for its own dissolution and the holding of new early
\nelections in March next year. The leaders of the major parties, Likud and Blue
\nand White, Benjamin Netanyahu and Beny Gantz, respectively, have failed to form
\na government. The two have made no fundamental compromise allowing the
\nformation of a ruling coalition and have accused each other for this failure.<\/p>\n
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(Translated by C.
\nMateescu & V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":75903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[33994,35234,29389,28945,34594,35235,35236],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-104023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-eu-council-meeting","tag-government-bills","tag-israel","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-migration-data","tag-romanian-air-force","tag-strikes-in-france"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n