MAGISTRATES Romania\u2019s president Nicu\u015for Dan met the leaders of the ruling coalition and representatives of magistrates to discuss the reform of judges and prosecutors\u2019 pensions. Romania risks losing EUR 230 million under the EU-funded National Recovery and Resilience Plan unless it passes new legislation\u00a0 on magistrates\u2019 retirement by November 28. The Constitutional Court recently rejected a draft law initiated by the government to modify special pensions on grounds that the government did not wait for the opinion of the Supreme Council of Magistrates. The bill provided for limiting magistrates\u2019 pensions to 70% of their final net salary and for gradually raising their retirement age to 65. In the context of Wednesday\u2019s meeting with the president, the High Court of Cassation and Justice said no administrative, fiscal or political measures can be endorsed, which come against principles such as the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers.<\/p>\n
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PROTESTS Thousands of trade unionists protested in Bucharest on Wednesday, chanting ‘Govern for us too! Not only for you!’, dissatisfied with the government\u2019s austerity measures and the decrease in people\u2019s spending power. Protesters from all sectors requested, among other things, an increase in minimum wages and an end to job cuts. The protest organised by the National Trade Union Bloc in front of the government headquarters was followed by a march that reached the headquarters of the main ministries responsible for the country’s economic and social policies.<\/p>\n
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INFLATION The year-on-year inflation rate was 9.8% in October in Romania, with non-foodstuff prices rising 10.96%, service prices by 10.52% and foodstuff prices by 7.57%, according to data made public by the National Statistics Institute on Wednesday. In September, the annual inflation rate was 9.88%. The inflation rate since the beginning of the year was 9.0%. The National Bank of Romania has revised the inflation forecast for the end of the year upwards, to 8.8%, indicating that it is likely to exceed 9%, as opposed to 4.6% as previously estimated. The institution expects the inflation rate to reach 3% at the end of 2026, as compared to 3.4% in its previous forecast.<\/p>\n
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STRATEGY Romania must forge closer ties with its Black Sea allies to protect its energy projects, which will make it the European Union’s largest gas producer by 2027, from Russian threats, the country’s National Defence Strategy for 2025-2030 states. Presented on Wednesday by president Nicu\u015for Dan, the Strategy stipulates that Romania will strengthen cooperation with Turkey and Bulgaria to protect critical energy and telecommunications infrastructure. The Strategy, which will be subject to public review for about two weeks before being sent to Parliament for endorsement, also states that Romania’s strategic partnership with the United States is of \u201ctremendous importance.\u201d Cyber-attacks, corruption and weak institutional capacity were identified in the Strategy as some of the main risks to the country’s national security. President Nicu\u015for Dan announced that a meeting of the Supreme Defence Council will be held on November 24 on the topic of the National Defence Strategy.<\/p>\n
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PRIVATE PENSIONS The Constitutional Court Wednesday postponed to November 25 a ruling on the complaints lodged by the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the AUR party in opposition regarding the bill on the payment of private pensions. The draft law was endorsed in mid-October and stipulates that people who choose to withdraw money from mandatory privately managed pension funds may receive an initial payment of only 30% of the total amount, with the balance to be spread over 8 years. Cancer patients are the only category that can withdraw the entire amount at once. The Supreme Court judges argue that citizens have the right to a clear, consistent and predictable law regarding their pension rights and it is in the interest of society that the law be reviewed by the Constitutional Court before promulgation. AUR party believes that the ultimate beneficiaries of the current law are the managers of private pension funds and the state itself, which constantly borrows taxpayers’ money.<\/p>\n
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HORIA MOCULESCU The well-known composer and pianist Horia Moculescu, a Romanian pop music legend, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 88. During his six-decade career, he wrote over 500 songs for which he won over 200 awards, and he worked with countless renowned Romanian artists. A member of the Romanian Union of Composers and Musicologists since 1973, Horia Moculescu was also a public television anchor between 2009 and 2013, bringing Romanian music closer to the public. Horia Moculescu wrote music with talent, intelligence, humor and elegance, and his music remained close, warm, natural and entered homes and souls, reads a message by the culture ministry.<\/p>\n
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DISINFORMATION The European Commission Wednesday presented plans for a so-called Democracy Shield, whose aim is to protect the EU from disinformation from Russia or other actors from outside the community space. According to the EC, tools will be created through which member states would work together to identify and eliminate disinformation campaigns, especially online, more specifically fake news circulated on various channels, such as social media or websites claiming to be media institutions. (AMP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MAGISTRATES Romania\u2019s president Nicu\u015for Dan met the leaders of the ruling coalition and representatives of magistrates to discuss the reform of judges and prosecutors\u2019 pensions. Romania risks losing EUR 230 million under the EU-funded National Recovery and Resilience Plan unless it passes new legislation\u00a0 on magistrates\u2019 retirement by November 28. The Constitutional Court recently rejected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":884000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[29621,33639,39577,34640,29488,30844,32911,180117,31881,28990,37481,34652,32916],"coauthors":[116091],"class_list":["post-950855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-defence","tag-democracy","tag-disinformation","tag-horia","tag-inflation","tag-infrastructure","tag-magistrate","tag-moculescu","tag-private-pensions","tag-protests","tag-retirement","tag-shield","tag-strategy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n