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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 08-14/03/2009 |
| (2009-03-13) |
| Last updated: 2009-03-16 14:27 EET |
This week, Romania has started talks in Bucharest with IMF, European Commission, World Bank and Central European Bank experts on a possible loan. On Monday, president Traian Basescu addressed Parliament saying that Romania needed a foreign loan as a safety belt in the present world crisis. He explained:
“The European Union does not have the instruments to check the use of money and assess the macro-economic situation. If we want to access EU funds made available to the new EU members, we must do it in partnership with the International Monetary Fund.”
The advisability of signing that accord has sparked off controversies and has divided the political class, trade unions, business people and analysts. Some consider the loan beneficial to covering the deficit of the balance of payments, restoring investor confidence, protecting the national currency and avoiding a devastating financial crisis. Others are reticent towards the accord, anticipating the austerity measures which the IMF will require, from an extensive cut in spending to higher taxes and salaries being ceilinged off. Some even believe that such measures would enhance the likelihood for Romania to plunge into recession. That has also been admitted for the first time by a government member, maybe the man who knows the situation better than anybody else. Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea said that in 2009, Romania’s economic growth rate might range between minus 1% and plus 1.5%, though the budget has been built on a 2.5% growth rate.
The Romanian government has endorsed the draft Civil Code, after it approved the draft Criminal Code and the draft Criminal and Civil Procedure Codes. Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu said that the new draft Civil Code provided for jus respondendi and for the right to reparations for material and legal prejudice caused by false media information. The drafting of the 4 codes has been demanded repeatedly by the European Commission, and the Romanian Parliament is to pass them by emergency procedure, before the European Commission makes public its report on the judiciary in summer. The government has also approved a memorandum on a cut in the number of taxes of a fiscal and non-fiscal nature. After a preliminary evaluation, the state found that the spending needed to collect and manage part of the taxes was much bigger than the returns proper. The government has set up the loan counter-guarantee Fund for small and medium-sized businesses, a fund amounting to 100 million Euros, laid down in the anti-crisis programme. The money is aimed at maintaining and creating new jobs in Romania.
Romania’s Higher Defense Council on Thursday met under the chairmanship of president Traian Basescu. The meeting focused on the preparation for the NATO summit due in Strasbourg, France and Kiehl, Germany in April. The Romanian president said that Romania stuck to the objectives set at the previous NATO summit held in Bucharest, that is the consolidation and overhaul of NATO, continued NATO enlargement, the strengthening of the NATO-Russia relationship. Also, Romania is interested in the presence of the Alliance in the Black Sea area and the Balkans and in its role in providing energy security. On the other hand, the Higher Defense Council decided to maintain the Romanian military presence in Kosovo and Afghanistan, and possibly send additional troops to Afghanistan as a temporary measure, on the eve of the presidential elections there, scheduled this summer.
On March 11th, it was 5 years since the terrorist attacks in Madrid, which made lots of victims, including 16 Romanian nationals; the attacks were the bloodiest ever mounted by Al Qaida in Western countries after the one in the USA on September 11th 2001. On the morning of March 11th, ten bombs went off in four trains packed with commuters, civil servants, workers or students. In memory of the victims, on March 11th 2009, Romania’s Embassy in Madrid unveiled a commemorative plaque in Atocha railway station. Attending the ceremony were families of the victims, Romanian and Spanish survivors, Romanian nationals, officials of the two countries. March 11th has been declared “ Terrorism Victims Day” by the European Parliament.
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