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| WEEK IN REVIEW 04-10/05/2009 |
| (2009-05-08) |
| Last updated: 2009-05-08 14:00 EET |
The campaign for the June the 7th European Parliament elections has started. Six political parties, one alliance and two independents are running for the 33 seats that Romania has in the European Parliament. Polls show that the front-runners are the Liberal Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party, both a part of the current government coalition, with 30% each. The liberals, now in opposition, are third, with 20%. Other parties that stand chances to reach the 5% election threshold are the far right Greater Romania Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, in opposition, alongside the president’s own daughter, Elena Basescu, running as an independent. It is for the first time that European elections are being held in Romania for an entire five year term. The first elections for the European Parliament were held in Romania in 2007, almost a year after the country joined the EU.
The IMF and the European Commission this week have approved the 12.9, respectively 5 billion Euro loan agreements with Romania, meant to mediate the effects of the economic crisis. Romania’s IMF representative, Mihai Tanasescu, said:
“This loan accord is, in my opinion, one of the most important signals that Romania can give to financial markets. It stabilizes Romania’s medium and long term policies, both in fiscal terms, and in structural reforms. This agreement is very important in future fiscal consolidation and in regaining the trust of investors in the potential of policies in Romania”.
These loan agreements have a beneficial impact on the currency exchange rate, said the governor of the national Bank of Romania, Mugur Isarescu. According to him, the peak of speculative and non-speculative pressure on the national currency has come and gone, and this week’s reduction of the reference interest rate was necessary to combat the effects of the credit deadlock in the Romanian economy. Also this week, the national bank has reviewed downwards its inflation predictions for 2009 and 2010, from 4.5 to 4.4%, respectively from 3.2 to 2.8%. Here is Mugur Isarescu:
“We are witnessing a more rapid adjustment of the foreign trade balance than we forecast. The foreign exchange rate has done its duty, alongside the slowdown of economic growth, and, more recently, fiscal and salary policies. With all the difficulties involved in their implementation, they are much more adequate for operating foreign adjustment”.
Dissatisfied mainly with the salary policy, teachers first threatened this week to boycott national tests for secondary cycle pupils, which were eventually held two days later. During long talks with education trade unions, the education minister Ecaterina Andronescu managed to appease some of their fears:
“Salary incomes will not be affected within the ministry’s budget. At the request of trade union federations, we will create a committee to monitor the way in which the money has been spent and will be spent following the investments in the education system. A timetable for decentralisation will also be worked out together with out social partners in the coming days.”
The Ministry of Education promised to uphold the provisions of the law on the increase of the salaries of the teaching staff, as part of a future flat salary scheme for the budget sector. Passed last autumn, before the legislative elections, the aforementioned law endorsed by the president and providing for a 50% increase in the teachers’ salaries, cannot be enforced, says the government, because of the crisis, which has drastically reduced the state’s financial resources. President Traian Basescu himself admitted that passing this law was a mistake:
“I take full responsibility, along with the entire political class, for endorsing the law on the increase of the teachers’ salaries. This is a law, which could no longer be enforced because of the crisis. I assure you that I had the goodwill and desire to see this law applied, but at the time the law was passed, no one will evaluate the difficult situation generated by the economic crisis.”
In order to prevent the spread of the H1N1 swine flu virus, authorities in Romania went on alert and have enhanced security measures in airports, the main means by which the infection spread. Anti-viral drug stocks were also supplemented. Radio Romania has joined the Ministry of Health in their awareness raising campaign, to inform the population on this disease, broadcasting radio advertising on hygiene and prevention, including measures recommended to people traveling to and from the affected areas.
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