April 4, 2017 UPDATE
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 04.04.2017, 20:01
VISIT Romanian Minister Delegate for European Affairs, Ana Birchall who is paying a formal visit to Paris on Tuesday and Wednesday has met Harlem Desir, state secretary for European Affairs with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development. The two have tackled issues of bilateral interest as well as the latest European developments. The two officials have also discussed concrete ways of cooperating in the field of European affairs so that Bucharest may benefit from France’s expertise in its efforts of organising the Romanian presidency of the EU council in the first semester of 2019.
LAW The draft on the unitary salary law is ready, Liviu Dragnea, leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) has announced. According to him, all state employees will benefit from higher salaries, but the pay rises are to take place gradually, with 32 billion lei to be earmarked until 2020. However, trade union leaders have called for the resignation of Labor Minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu as they are dissatisfied with the way in which the government coalition decided to promote the law on the unitary salary. According to them the law will not be promoted by the government but as a legislation initiative of the Social Democratic MPs and that might mean sidestepping public debates. The opposition liberals have called on the government to assume responsibility for this law given that it was a PSD election pledge late last year. The authorities would like the law to come into effect as of July 1st.
AUDIT — The Romanian Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has announced he will order an external audit of the Prosecutor’s Office with the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) and the Department for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) to check the prosecutors’ activity. Toader has said the audit will look into the number of cases, acquittals or citizens who were unlawfully imprisoned. Last week Tudorel Toader presented the conclusions of the assessment he made of Romanias General Prosecutor, Augustin Lazăr, and the Chief Prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA), Laura Codruţa Kovesi. The decision to assess Lazar and Kovesi came against the background of the Constitutional Court magistrates ruling that there was a constitutional conflict between the DNA and Government. We recall that through decree no. 13 the coalition government made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberal and Democrats tried to amend the criminal anti-corruption legislation, which triggered large-scale street protests.
PROSECUTOR 16 European Union countries, Romania included, have launched plans to create an EU public prosecutor’s office to combat fraud, the bloc announced on Monday. Plans for a European prosecutor first emerged in 2009 to combat fraud that costs the bloc nearly €900 million a year. But they have met resistance from some states who fear a loss of sovereignty, as the proposed prosecution office would have powers to operate directly in member states.
