September 28, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 28.09.2023, 19:17

Salaries – The gross minimum wage in Romania will be increased, as of October 1, from 3,000 lei (600 Euros) to 3,300 lei (660 Euros), according to the decision adopted on Thursday by the Romanian Government. The measure will benefit 1.8 million employees. By increasing the minimum wage, the authorities aim at stimulating employment, increasing the purchasing power of employees and reducing illegal work. It will also benefit other social categories whose incomes are calculated according to the value of the minimum wage, such as people with disabilities and those who earn money from independent activities and from intellectual property rights. (…) The Social-Democratic Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu pointed out that the increase in the minimum wage in agriculture, construction and the food industry will be postponed, because the latest calculations show that employees would lose money when they pay health insurance contributions.

Forum – The Euro-Atlantic Resilience Center (E-ARC) in Bucharest is hosting the second edition of the Euro-Atlantic Resilience Forum on Thursday and Friday, attended by Romanian and foreign experts as well as EU and NATO officials. According to organizers, this years theme is “Resilience at Sea and its Impact on Land”, seeking to answer security challenges impacting the maritime sector with significant consequences, which in most cases require concerted and global action. Each panel will be held simultaneously in Bucharest, New York, Brussels, Washington, Kyiv, Ljubljana and Lublin. E-ARC is a center of excellence in the field of resilience, a partner of NATO and the EU, which acts to the benefit of these organizations and member or partner states.

Conference – Senate Speaker Nicolae Ciucă is attending the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament, representing the 46 members of the Council of Europe, an event hosted by Dublin, Ireland. Nicolae Ciucă said the meeting will address such topics as the fallout from Russias war in Ukraine, the role of national Parliaments in the reconstruction of Ukraine, challenges to democracy in times of instability and equality and diversity in public representation. According to the Romanian official, Russias unprovoked and unwarranted aggression against Ukraine has led to profound changes in European geopolitics, particularly in the fields of economy, energy and trade. “The Black Sea has become an area of increased interest to the worlds superpowers, and Romania finds itself in a strategic position of being the only member of both the EU and NATO that has land and maritime borders with Ukraine”, Nicolae Ciucă also pointed out.

Visit – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, on an unannounced visit to Kyiv, said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces were “gradually gaining ground” in their counteroffensive against Russian forces. He announced that NATO now had over-arching framework contracts in place with arms companies worth 2.4 billion euros ($2.53 billion) for ammunition. Stoltenberg said such contracts would allow NATO members to replenish their depleted stockpiles while also continuing to provide Ukraine with ammunition, a key factor in the war. On the other hand, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg also condemned Russian strikes near Ukraines border with NATO member Romania. He said there was no evidence such strikes were a deliberate attack on Romania but branded them “reckless” and “destabilizing”. In turn, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that NATO members should provide Ukraine with more anti-aircraft systems, given the fear of a new Russian bombing campaign on Ukrainian energy infrastructures as winter approaches. The Ukrainian army is continuing its counter-offensive launched in June in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk provinces in the south and east, through which it is trying to reach the Sea of ​​Azov to isolate Moscows troops from Crimea by land, while the Russian army attacks to the north.

Brancusi — The exhibition “Brâncusi: Romanian sources and universal perspectives” was presented to the press, on Thursday, at the National Art Museum in Timisoara (west). It is the first exhibition of the artist in his native country, after more than 50 years, and it opens to the public on Saturday, as an integral part of the cultural program “Timişoara 2023 – European Capital of Culture”. Visitors can see sculptures such as Măiastra, Mademoiselle Pogany, Childs Head, The Kiss, Prayer or Milestone. The event will end on January 28, 2024. The last Romanian exhibition dedicated to the great sculptor was organized in 1970. (VP, LS)