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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW (8-14/03/2010) |
| (2010-03-12) |
| Last updated: 2010-03-15 13:08 EET |
Winter seems to want to linger in Romania, with heavy snow wreaking havoc across the country again. It has been snowing in all counties and a yellow code alert was issued for the southern part of the country, where snowfalls were accompanied by snowstorms. Hydrologists have also issued a flood warning for the Danube river. The bad weather has not discouraged protesters though. Discontent with salaries and numerous layoffs, ever more state employees are preparing for or have already began staging rallies in front of the government headquarters and prefect’s offices across the country. Last week, the Romanian Railroad Company slashed the number of employees by 4 700. The expected number of layoffs will go past 10 000 by May of this year. The measures aim at breathing new life into railroad companies, following massive losses registered over the last years. Social protection measures for people who Railroad Company employees made redundant will be applied, in accordance with seniority. For a period up to 15 months, they are entitled to unemployment benefits, as well as an additional income to reach the average salary. 1 600 employees of the National Pit Coal Company have received the pink letter this week and they will be dismissed in early April. According to the National Employment Agency, the number of the unemployed is on the rise. Centralised data show that in March, the number of jobless people stands at 760 000, while the unemployment rate has reached 8.3%, that is 3% higher as against March of 2009.
Teachers are also discontent and threatening with a all-out strike, which could cause the freezing of the school year. The reasons are reduced wages as a result of the single payment scheme, cutting bonuses and layoffs scheduled for September 1st. Bogdan Hossu, head of the Cartel Alfa Trade Confederation:
"We will begin with rallies over the 3 main issues - the pension draft law, which is a priority, as well as problems relating to the state system salary law and the minimum salary which has to be increased to reach the 705 lei threshold. The first protests will begin on March 10th and will extend well into the latter half of the month. In parallel, there will be debates with MPs of all counties and we hope to meet with union members. Rallies across the country, with at least 1000 people, will be held until the end of the month.’’
Pensioners will also take to the streets in mid-March, to call for an increase in the pension reference value to reach 45% of the average salary, as provided by the law. Subway workers have said that as of March 18th, they will declare an indefinite strike, due to economic reasons. The National Statistics Institute says that the average net revenue dropped 3.5% in January, as against December 2009.
Romanian economy will see a slight comeback this year, analysts from Standard and Poor’s claim, after revising Romania’s long-term rating perspective from negative to stable. The decision reflects the agency’s perception regarding the budget reform program and the likelihood for the government in Bucharest to continue to observe the agreement with the IMF and the EU. Standard and Poor’s hails the executive’s intention to reduce the budget deficit from 7.8% of the GDP, as it was in 2009, to 6.4% in 2010. Another factor that financial experts take into account is the disbursement of the due payments from the IMF. This week, the European Commission disbursed one million euros to Romania, representing the second payment of the 5-billion euro loan granted to Bucharest.
20 years after the 1989 revolution, which led to the fall of the Ceausescu regime, the government in Bucharest has decided to entirely declassify anti-Communist files. Many revolutionaries have repeatedly called for this move over the last 2 decades. The documents, which had been termed as state secret, or top secret, can no longer harm national security, public order or the interests of public or private persons’’, the government’s decision states. Prime Minister Emil Boc:
"’We are taking an important step toward providing necessary information, so that the 1989 revolution dossier be as transparent as possible, from the authorities’ point of view. The prevailing truth has to be validated on the grounds of documents which are no longer state secrets.’’
More than 1000 people were killed in the anti-Communist revolution in Romania, most of them after Ceausescu fled the capital. Their death was attributed to terrorists whose existence has not been proved. This has fuelled the belief that crimes of the Securitate, the former Communist secret police, were thus concealed.
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