PENSIONS – President
\nKlaus Iohannis has ratified the public pension law, which increases the pension
\npoint by 13.8%, from 360 EUR at present to some 410 EUR starting January 1, 2024. Starting September
\n1 next year, pensions will also go up after recalcuations that will observe a
\nnew formula. The retirement age for men and women will be brought to the same
\nlevel gradually until 2035. In other news, the Constitutional Court on Tuesday
\nruled that former Romanian MPs are to keep their special pensions, while
\nParliament is allowed to eliminate them in the future. In June, Parliament
\neliminated special pensions awarded to deputies and senators, as Romania
\npledged to eliminate them as part of its Recovery and Resilience Plan. <\/p>\n
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PROSECUTION – The
\nSenate has greenlit the prosecution of former Liberal Prime Minister Florin
\nC\u00ee\u021bu, whom anti-corruption prosecutors accuse of abuse of office in an
\ninvestigation into the abusive purchase of anti-COVID-19 vaccines. Targeted in
\nthe same case are also former USR Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu and Ioana Mih\u0103il\u0103, whose immunity was lifted after Klaus Iohannis
\nsigned the anti-prosecutors’ request. <\/p>\n
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CORRUPTION – The mayor of the
\ncity of Baia Mare (north-west), C\u0103t\u0103lin Chereche\u015f, who fled the country after
\nbeing sentenced to 5 years in prison in a corruption case, was apprehended in
\nGermany, the Romanian Police announced. He was identified and taken into
\ncustody by the police in Bavaria based on the information provided by the
\nRomanian authorities. Sources close to the investigation say the former mayor
\nwas aided by an aunt and was attempting to leave Germany when he was caught.
\nChereche\u015f had left the country on Friday, using the ID of a family member, and
\nthe procedures for returning him to the country are under way.<\/p>\n
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NATIONAL DAY – The
\nRomanian Cultural Institute (ICR) is organizing over 30 events abroad marking
\nthe National Day of Romania on December 1, including concerts, exhibitions,
\nfilm screenings, debates, theatre performances and literary events. Among the
\nhighlights are the Madrigal Choir tour of the USA, plays staged by the National
\nTheatre of Sibiu in Paris, a recital by soprano Teodora Gheorghiu and
\nbass-baritone Sorin Coliban in London, or performances by violinist Alexandru
\nTomescu and pianist S\u00eenziana Mircea in Beijing, Budapest and Vienna.
\nA number of concerts, film screenings, photo exhibitions are also planned in
\nSpain, while the Institute’s agenda in Italy includes a series of folk-inspired
\ncarol concerts. <\/p>\n
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MEETING – The
\npresident of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, on Wednesday met Eastern-Catholic priests
\nat the Blaj Bishopric as part of an event marking 75 years since the communist
\nauthorities banned the Eastern-Catholic Church of Romania. Defined as an
\nofficial Church of Romania under the Constitution in the interwar period, the
\nEastern-Catholic Church was outlawed after the war by the puppet regime
\ninstalled by Soviet occupation troops. Countless Eastern-Catholic bishops,
\npriests and churchgoers were imprisoned, many of them dying in communist
\ndetention. The Eastern-Catholic Church was reinstated after the 1989 anti-communist
\nrevolution. (AMP & VP)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of domestic and international news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[38122,116321,28945,29585,116320],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-612003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-anti-corruption-investigations","tag-eastern-catholic-church","tag-klaus-iohannis","tag-national-day-of-romania","tag-public-pension-law"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n