GOVERNMENT.
\nThe Bucharest government is going to amend the recently adopted emergency
\nordinance that reduces public spending from January 1. The Finance Ministry is
\nexpected to come up with a new draft ordinance, which stipulates, among the new
\nfiscal-budgetary measures, the exemption of certain categories of public
\nservants from the 5% salary increase planned for 2024. The Finance Ministry
\nemployees and the Ministry’s subordinate institutions are among them. Also, the
\njudicial staff that benefited from a salary increase in 2023 will not receive a
\nnew one. Not even the teaching staff can get an additional 5% above the 20%
\nincrease included in the Education Ministry’s budget. The employees with the
\nMinistry of Finance, Customs and Fiscal Administration affiliated with the
\nMeridian trade union were on a token strike on Wednesday to protest against
\ntheir exclusion from the 5% increase in the basic salary from next year. Trade
\nunion leaders say that if the government adopts the emergency order, they are
\nready to stage other forms of protest<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
POLICE. Last
\nweek, the Romanian police and partners from the states in the European free
\nmovement area caught more than 800 people, following alerts from the Schengen
\nInformation System. This year, more than 1,000 people were brought from abroad
\nto Romanian prisons, of whom more than 700 are fugitives already convicted by
\nCourt. All others committed crimes abroad, but asked to serve their sentence in
\ntheir home country. In order to discourage convicts from fleeing the country,
\nthe Romanian Ministry of Justice initiated a bill called the
\nfugitives’ law, adopted in November by the Chamber of Deputies but challenged
\nin the Constitutional Court, where it will be debated on January 31. After the
\nlaw comes into force, fugitives will have a new sentence added to the existing
\none, of 6 to 36 months in prison.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
LOAN. The
\nEuropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to provide a 30.8 million
\ndollar loan for the construction, equipment and operation of an overhead power
\nline between Suceava, in northern Romania, and B\u0103l\u0163i, in the Republic of
\nMoldova. The committee for foreign policy and European integration of the
\nMoldovan parliament on Wednesday advised in favour of starting talks to conclude
\na loan agreement between Moldova and the EBRD to finalise the second stage of
\nthe power line. According to Radio Chisinau, this loan will cover 40% of the
\ntotal cost of the project, with the rest to come from the European Investment
\nBank and the European Union. (CM)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of local and international news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-612059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n