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| The Week in Review |
| (2011-12-10) |
| Last updated: 2011-12-13 12:56 EET |
Romania is to the Fiscal Policy and Monetary Integration documents agreed upon at the EU summit in Brussels.
President of Romania Traian Basescu attended the European Winter Summit in Brussels, an event considered crucial for the future of Europe and the single currency. President Basescu said that Romania cannot accept a two-tier European Union and wants to get more involved in the decision-making process of the eurozone.
Basescu said that in order to overcome the crisis, Europe has to remain united and show solidarity: “Solidarity in this difficult time is the real test of the EU’s competitiveness and sovereignty. More integration – not only economic, but also political – does not necessarily mean the loss of sovereignty but the opportunity to develop policies and mechanisms through which we can together manage the EU’s sovereignty.”
Romania and five other states from outside the eurozone will participate alongside the 17 eurozone countries in the Fiscal Policy and Monetary Integration Policy agreed upon during this extremely tense summit. The six non-eurozone countries, Bulgaria, Romania, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia are to sign an inter-government treaty by March 2012, focusing on fiscal consolidation and integration at EU level. The attempt to convince all 27 EU members to sign the text has failed, after Great Britain and Hungary declined. The document provides for sanctions against EU states which do not observe the budget deficit limit of 3% of the GDP, strengthens the EU’s right to intervene in countries’ budgets, and opens the way for close European supervision of countries with foreign debts. It also extends the possibility of giving up unanimous voting, in emergency situations, and allows for crucial decisions to be made with a majority of 85%.
Romania has ratified the agreement with the United States on the deployment of part of the future anti-missile shield in Europe on Romanian territory.
Senators in Bucharest have unanimously ratified the agreement with the United States on the installation of parts of the US anti-missile shield. Earlier endorsed by deputies, the agreement requires just the promulgation of the president to come into effect. Romania’s Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi has again underlined the strategic importance of the document.
VM Sound bite: “The deployment of parts of the US anti-missile shield represents a major contribution to the security of Romania, the United States and the other NATO allies. The agreement has been concluded at state level, given the importance of this document.”
The agreement provides for the construction of a military base of strategic interceptors, which is to become fully operational in Deveselu, southern Romania by 2015.
Romania’s Parliament will be debating the state budget and social insurance bills for 2012
The state budget and social insurance bills for 2012 are scheduled to be debated next week in Parliament by both chambers. They passed the expert committees in the two chambers in the form they were introduced by the government. The budget is built on an assumption of economic growth of 2.1%, a budget deficit of 1.9%, and 3.4% inflation. PM Emil Boc claimed that the defining attributes of this draft budget are prudence, a sense of responsibility, investments and jobs. The 2012 state budget promotes an austere fiscal policy, with no increases to pensions or public-sector salaries. The Social Liberal Union, the opposition coalition, challenged the bill and announced that its MPs would not vote in its favour. They described it as being a budget of poverty, humiliation and injustice.
The Constitutional Court in Romania ruled in favor of freezing pensions and state wages in 2012
The parliamentary opposition in Romania challenged the government’s decision to freeze state wages and pensions in 2012, but failed. The Social Liberal Union filed against the measure in the Constitutional Court, arguing that reducing the public deficit cannot justify depriving state employees and pensioners of their rights. The judges ruled against this challenge, shattering the hopes of those dependent upon the state for their upkeep. The decision is definitive, and was taken by a wide majority. The Social Liberal Union, the main opposition group, criticized it, saying it seriously violates several articles in the Constitution, and that it encourages the government to ignore court rulings.
New Information in the CIA Prison Scandal
Representatives of the Office of the National Registry of Secret State Information have denied fresh charges of having hosted a secret CIA detention center. Journalists from Associated Press and German public television, ARD, investigated the matter and concluded they have identified a secret CIA prison in a residential area of Bucharest, allegedly in the basement of a building which is now the headquarters of the above mentioned Office for Secret State Information. This is allegedly the place where several terror suspects, including Khalis Sheik Mohammad, mastermind of the September 11 attacks, were interrogated and tortured. Amnesty International called on Romania to reopen investigations into secret CIA prisons. So far, the authorities in Bucharest have denied every charge in this matter.
Romania’s women’s handball team reached the eighth finals in the World Championships in Brazil
The Romanian national women’s handball team have qualified for the eighth finals in the World Championships in Brazil. The match will be held on December 11th and 12th. The Romanians were in group C, alongside Cuba, Tunisia, Japan, France, and the competition’s hosts, Brazil. Romania’s track record at the women’s handball world competition includes a gold medal in 1962, and two silvers, one in 1973, and the other in 2005.
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