The pension law has been promulgated by the Romanian President Klaus
\nIohannis<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
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President Klaus Iohannis has promulgated
\na new pension law which provides, among other things, for a pensions’ increase
\nand the recalculation of millions of pensions that are now in payment process.
\nThe bill was voted by Parliament in June after the first version had been
\nreturned to the legislative by the Constitutional Court. The law stipulates the
\nincrease in the pension point, which will be implemented gradually as of
\nSeptember 2019 until 2022. <\/p>\n
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Also, under the new law, all
\nremuneration rights for which contributions to the state budget have been paid,
\nsuch as benefits, 13th salary, overtime, bonuses, etc will be
\ncapitalized on. Under the law, women who have completed the minimum
\ncontribution period of 15 years and have given birth to 3 children whom they
\nhave raised up to the age of 16 will benefit from a reduction of the retirement
\nage by 6 years. Starting with the 4th child, one year will be added
\nfor each child at the initial 6 years. The survivors’ benefits are maintained
\nwith a new amendment: aid for the surviving spouse amounting to 25% of the
\npension of the deceased spouse. The standard retirement age for men is 65 and
\nfor women 63. The minimum contribution period is 15 years for both women and
\nmen while the complete contribution period is 35 years. <\/p>\n
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GRECO will continue to monitor Romania<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
\n
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The latest GRECO report on Romania
\npublished by Brussels officials is a new red card for the PSD-ALDE ruling, says
\nRomanian president Klaus Iohannis who has also called for dismantling the
\nspecial section for the investigation of offences in the judiciary through a
\ngovernment initiative. Iohannis has also called on the executive to come up
\nquickly with a draft law in order to bring justice legislation back in line
\nwith the will of the people and the recommendations from European institutions.
\n<\/p>\n
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GRECO, the Council of Europe
\nanti-corruption body, believes Romania has made very little progress in putting in place measures to prevent
\ncorruption among parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors and to address the
\nconcerns raised by its controversial reform of the judicial system. Greco is
\nparticularly critical of the lack of action to address the need for objective
\nselection criteria when appointing and dismissing prosecutors, which is posing
\nserious threats to the independence of the judiciary. GRECO decided to continue
\nevaluating Romania’s compliance with the pending recommendations contained in
\nthe two reports and has requested that the Romanian authorities report back on
\nprogress achieved by 30th June 2020. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Former MEP,
\nSocial-Democrat Ioan Mircea Pascu has been designated interim European
\ncommissioner without portfolio<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
\n
\n
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Social Democrat Ioan Mircea Pascu, a former MEP proposed by the PSD-ALDE
\ngovernment in Bucharest for the position of interim European Commissioner for
\nRegional Policy, has been designated member of the community executive but
\nwithout portfolio. In the same situation is the Estonian candidate Kadri
\nSimson. The decision has been made by the president of the European Commission
\nJean Claude Juncker who didn’t bestow specific portfolios on the two candidates
\ndue to their short mandate, which is due to end on October 31st,
\nwhen a fresh European Commission is expected to begin its mandate. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They will participate
\nin the Commission’s activities and in the team project. Under the regulations,
\nthe European Commission president has interviewed the two candidates and
\nconfirmed their competences. Ioan Mircea Pascu and Kadri Simson are to be
\ninterviewed on Wednesday by commission presidents in the European Parliament and
\nthe MEPs are to cast their votes on the two candidates in Strasbourg on
\nThursday. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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A veteran left-wing politician, Pascu, 70, got involved in politics
\nshortly after the anti-communist revolution of 1989. He was the country’s
\nDefence Minister in 2004 when Romania entered NATO and an MEP since the country
\njoined the European Union in 2007 until this year. Before 2014 and 2019 he was
\none of the 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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According to data
\nprovided by the National Institute for Statistics, Romania’s inflation rate
\nwent down to 3.4%<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
\n
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Romania’s economic growth of 4%
\nlast year remained robust though being mainly based on consumption and less on
\ninvestment, the country’s central bank governor Mugur Isarescu said during the
\npresentation of the institution’s annual report. However, Romania is among the
\ncountries with the lowest public debt, 35% of its GDP, Isarescu went on to say.
\nReferring to the 3.84% inflation rate, the governor explained that inflation
\nwent down because of the slight drops in food and non-food prices. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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In mid-May the central bank revised
\nits inflation forecast up to 4.2% this year, and a 3.3% inflation rate for 2020.
\nAlso in May, the European Commission estimated that Romania’s inflation rate
\nwould stay around 3.6% in 2019 and 3% in 2020. Mugur Isarescu, who has been
\ngovernor of Romania’s central bank since 1990, has again been confirmed by
\nParliament for a fresh mandate. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Four Romanian football sides are playing in the European cups<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
\n
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Romania’s vice-champions FCSB,
\nformerly known as Steaua Bucharest, on Thursday secured a 2-0 win against
\nMilsami Orhei from the neighboring Republic of Moldova in the first round of
\nthe Europa League’s first preliminary stage. Also on Thursday, CSU Craiova,
\nfrom south-western Romania clinched a 3-2 away win against FK Sabail of
\nAzerbaijan. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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On Tuesday, Romania’s champions CFR
\nCluj conceded a 0-1 defeat in an away game against Kazakh side FC Astana in the
\nChampions League. The return games will be taking place next week. Romanian Cup
\nholder, Viitorul Constanta will play directly in the competition’s second
\npreliminary round against Belgian side FC Anvers, coached by former Romanian
\ninternational Ladislau Boloni. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(translated by bill)<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of the week’s main stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":124654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40944],"tags":[42458,32575,30059,34756,30740,34896],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-124671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-week-in-review","tag-anvers","tag-csu","tag-isarescu","tag-mugur","tag-steaua","tag-viitorul"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n