October 28, 2016 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 28.10.2016, 12:30
CETA Parliament in Belgium’s region of Wallonia has endorsed a revised text of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement CETA, a document, which it blocked earlier amid discontent with some of its provisions. The move will allow Belgium’s federal government to sign CETA. The document has to be approved by all 27 EU members and by Canada. Romania has also conditioned the signing of the agreement by a visa waiver for its citizens. Ottawa has agreed with the gradual lifting of visas starting 2017 but only if CETA was signed.
DRILL Over November 1st and 12th troops of a Romanian brigade of surface-to-air missiles will be participating together with their US counterparts in an exercise called Patriot Shock V held at Capul Midia, southern Romania. Patriot Shock V is an exercise involving surface-to-air structures of the Romanian Air Forces, a Hawk PIP lll battery and a Patriot one with a view to training the Hawk crews to engage air targets by also integrating the Patriot battery.
STRIKE A strike mounted by Romanian Post Office employees has spread all over the country. Postal offices in several other counties have joined the protest that began on Wednesday. Hundreds of employees are refusing to work in offices or distribute the correspondence. This state-owned company has incurred significant losses as a result of the strike. The protesters have asked for pay rises of up to 45 euros, whereas the employer offers them only half the sum. According to trade union leaders, the strike is going to continue until the board of directors meets the employees’ claims.
COLECTIV Romanian prime minister Dacian Ciolos on Friday met survivors and relatives of people wounded in the fire that broke out a year ago at the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest in which 64 people were killed and more than 100 injured. On Wednesday, the government decided to prolong by two years the reimbursement of the expenses incurred by the victims of the tragedy for their treatment abroad. The court has recently begun a trial in the case. The three owners of the nightclub are accused of manslaughter, bodily harm and for failing to take the required legal health and safety measures. The owners of the company that supplied the pyrotechnics, an employee and two legal persons will also stand trial. The tragedy was followed by large-scale street demonstrations that led to the resignation of the Social Democrat prime minister Victor Ponta and the appointment of Dacian Ciolos’s technocratic cabinet.
ELECTION Independent parties and candidates in Romania have submitted their candidate lists for the parliamentary elections of December 11th. Most political parties have candidates for all counties and say they propose many new names alongside experienced parliamentarians. The election campaign takes place between the 11th of November and the 10th of December.
