October 11, 2017
Click here for a round-up of domestic news
Newsroom, 11.10.2017, 16:24
ANTI-CORRUPTION – Romanian Vice-premier Sevil Shhaideh, minister of Regional Development, is again being heard by the anti-corruption prosecutors, in a corruption file in which she is prosecuted alongside the minister delegate for European Funds, Rovana Plumb. The names of the two ministers are among those most frequently mentioned by the media, relative to a prospective government reshuffle, likely to be operated on Tuesday, by PM Mihai Tudose. The Premier held talks on this issue with both President Klaus Iohannis and the Social-Democrat leader, Liviu Dragnea. The leadership of the Social Democratic Party will gather on Thursday to decide what ministers will be replaced.
MOTION – The Chamber of Deputies in the Romanian Parliament has today rejected a simple motion on the situation of the Romanian healthcare system, filed by MPs in the right-wing Opposition made up of the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union and the Peoples Movement Party. The document was debated on Tuesday in a plenary session of Parliament, with the signatories calling for the resignation of the line minister, Florian Bodog, and for finding solutions to the problems in the healthcare system. They evoked the vaccine crisis, the unfinished construction works on hospitals and the low level of salaries in healthcare. In response, minister Bodog has said that problems left pending for years cannot be solved in a short time-span, but he added that significant steps have already been taken to solve the situation.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS – The Romanian foreign minister, Teodor Melescanu, is today in Budapest, alongside his counterparts from Bulgaria, Slovenia and Estonia, to attend, as guests, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Vishegrad Group countries and of the Western Balkan states. Yesterday, at an international conference in Timisoara, western Romania, Melescanu reiterated Romanias readiness to further support countries in the Western Balkans in their effort to join the EU and NATO, on condition they meet political accession criteria. During a recent meeting with his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto, held in Cluj, north-western Romania, the Romanian foreign minister said Bucharest is interested in boosting cooperation with the Vishegrad Group member states: Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia.
PROTEST – The trade unionists of the “Ambulanta National Trade Union Federation are today picketing the Labour, Health and Finance Ministries in Bucharest. They call among others, for an end to be put to reducing the monthly incomes of healthcare personnel, and ambulance services employees, respectively, as of January 1 2018, following the introduction of new payment regulations. They also call on the line authorities to give up the idea of transferring the payment of social security contributions from employers to employees, a controversial measure envisaged by the Government. Last but not least, the representatives of ambulance service employees call on the authorities to allot money for purchasing new ambulance cars next year.
