|
RRI newsletter subcription
(e-mail address):
|
 |
Archives:
|
|
| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 12-18/04/2010 |
| (2010-04-16) |
| Last updated: 2010-04-19 13:54 EET |
This week Romania, Georgia and Azerbaijan have signed in Bucharest an agreement regarding the building of a gas pipeline to provide gas to the European Union. The agreement provides for the setting up of a company in charge of building and then managing the two terminals on the Black Sea, one in Constanta and the on the Georgian coast. The gas from Azerbaijan will cross Georgia and the Black Sea to reach the Romanian Black Sea coast in liquefied state. The Romanian economy minister, Adriean Videanu says the project will give Romania an important role in providing natural gas to the European Union. Adriean Videanu:
“This is one of the fastest and most efficient projects on the southern corridor which benefits all parties involved and brings energy resources from the Caspian Sea area to the European Union. It will be used both for the domestic market and the EU market, given that Romania has actually finalised the project connecting it to Hungary. Next year we hope we’ll manage to connect with Bulgaria, so that Romania’s national transport system will be able to convey gas to the EU single market. “
The capacity provided by the two terminals might reach 7 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
The new education bill, which brings major changes to the education system, has been approved by the Romanian government and is currently being debated by Parliament. Initiated by the education minister, Daniel Funeriu, with a view to improving the education process, the bill has been criticized by the education trade unions who plan to go on all-out strike on April 22nd. Teachers’ discontent is related to salaries, the prospect of future layoffs and the fact that the education bill does not include some of the amendments made by teachers during their talks with ministry representatives. Changes range from the introduction of periodical tests every two years to moving the 9th grade from the high school to the secondary school system. The baccalaureate exam is substantially changed; tests will be more complex and will differ according to high school. On the other hand, the employees of the Land Registry and Real Estate offices, discontent with their lower incomes and the non-payment of overtime, have announced they will extend processing time for urgent documents to one month as compared to two or three days at the moment. Also building works will be protracted to last at least 6 months, which mostly affects the “First Home” programme targeting young people who want to buy a house.
Except for a number of amendments, the bill on the unified pension system in Romania has received the favourable opinion of expert committees and will be debated by the Senate on Monday. The document, meant to reform the system, must be adopted by the end of the current parliamentary session, in keeping with to an understanding with the IMF, an institution with which Romania has concluded a loan agreement. Under the new bill, the legal retirement age for men and women will reach 65 by 2030. Other provisions refer to the calculation of the pension reference value in relation to inflation and the introduction of tougher conditions for granting disability pensions. There are also plans to reduce the pensions of certain categories of state employees, including army and police forces, magistrates, diplomats and airmen, who benefit from special pensions at the moment, a move which has caused much discontent among these categories.
The National Agency for Integrity has been deprived of part of its attributions as the Constitutional Court has ruled that several articles of the law on its functioning and organisation do not comply with the Constitution. Set up in order to verify the wealth of dignitaries and other people in public offices, the Agency has been denied the right to file criminal complaints to the Prosecutor’s Office and to go to court to ask for the confiscation of assets acquired illegally. The responsibilities of the Agency have been diminished after the Constitutional Court sustained some objections raised on grounds of unconstitutionality by one of the people investigated by the National Agency for Integrity. PM Emil Boc said he was worried about the possible consequences of the Court’s decision on the mechanism of cooperation and verification agreed upon with the European Commission officials, a mechanism which Bucharest wants to eliminate.
The former president of the USSR, Mihail Gorbacev, has visited Bucharest this week. This is the 3rd visit Gorbacev paid to Romania after previous meetings with dictator Nicolae Ceausescu at the end of the 1980s. The former Russian leader met the former Romanian presidents Ion Iliescu and Emil Constantinescu and said the events of December 1989 were an expression of the will of the Romanian people alone, ruling out any involvement in the Romanian anti-Communist revolution.
|
|
| |
WMA |
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
MP3 |
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
AAC+ |
|
|
48kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
 Historical mascot of
RRI |
| |
© 1999 - 2011 Copyright Radio Romania International |
|
2025-04-03
Print
Listen again