December 30, 2014 UPDATE
A look at some of the top stories in Romania today.
România Internațional, 30.12.2014, 12:15
Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday met the country’s foreign minister, Bogdan Aurescu, to discuss Romania’s foreign policy and the voting process abroad in last month’s presidential elections. Iohannis, who was sworn in on December 21st, also had talks with the interior and defence ministers about the president’s responsibilities. On Monday, President Iohannis met the prime minister for a talk on the state budget and the allocation of an additional 0.3% of the GDP to the defence ministry.
The weather will be extremely cold in Romania, in particular in the centre, south and east of the country, with temperatures dropping to as low as minus 12 degrees Celsius. More than 1,000 people have been rescued from extreme situations caused by heavy snowfall and blizzard that have hit half of the counties in the south and east of Romania in recent days. Other countries in Europe are also affected by bad weather. Snow storms have disrupted road and air travel in Britain. Germany has also been affected by heavy snowfall, while road and railway travel has been disrupted in Belgium. Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria have been faced with similar situations, and casualties were reported in Slovenia and France.
In its last meeting this year, the Romanian government introduced the concept of “dual education” into the education bill, which involves both the theoretical and practical training of students. Another change to the education law refers to the awarding of PhD titles. Giving up a PhD title will entail not only the cancellation of the degree itself, but also the entire period of study. The amendment was introduced less than 2 weeks after prime minister Victor Ponta said he wanted to renounce his doctoral title following accusations of plagiarism in his PhD paper.
On the 67th anniversary of the abdication of King Michael I of Romania, President Klaus Iohannis released a statement saying the king “remains a model of dignity and dedication”. Iohannis recalled how, on the 30th of December 1947, King Michael was forced by the communists and their allies to renounce the throne at gunpoint. “The respect and admiration enjoyed by His Majesty today is an achievement of Romanian society in the last 25 years”, the president’s release also writes.
The minimum wage will go up in Romania on January 1st from 900 lei, the equivalent of 200 euros to 975 lei and again on July 1st to 1,025 lei. Almost 1.5 million employees will benefit from these increases. The authorities in Bucharest say pensions will also grow in 2015 by 5%, with the minimum pension going up to 400 lei, the equivalent of 90 euros. The minimum wage in Romania is the second lowest in the region, after Bulgaria, being about half the minimum wage in other EU emerging economies such as Croatia, Poland and Slovakia.
President Klaus Iohannis on Monday signed the country’s 2015 state and social security budget bill into law, following a ruling by the Constitutional Court that the bill was in line with the Romanian Constitution. The court rejected a complaint from the centre right opposition regarding the unconstitutionality of the bill. The budget law for 2015 estimates a deficit level of 1.8% of the GDP, an inflation rate of 2.2% and an economic growth rate of 2.5%.
