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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 19-25/04/2010 |
| (2010-04-23) |
| Last updated: 2010-04-26 14:02 EET |
For a week, air travel across Europe was hampered by the volcanic ash cloud coming from Iceland. Closed airports and air spaces, thousands of cancelled flights and millions of people stranded – this is the picture of what happened this week, with consequences translating into billions of dollars worth of losses. The International Air Transport Association has actually reported losses of 1.7 billion dollars. In Romania, too, the cloud seriously affected the activity of all airliners, as all airports were temporarily closed. To help the travellers blocked in the Romanian airports, hotels provided accommodation at half price, and railway and road carriers supplemented the number of trips available.
The controversial draft pension law has this week reached the Romanian Senate. Authorities say that in the medium and long run pensions will no longer be paid, because the current system is not sustainable and needs revision. On the other hand, the government believes that special pensions benefiting the staff in certain fields, such as the army, magistracy, police and diplomacy, are way too high and therefore must be recalculated based on the principle of contribution. The growing number of early and illness retirements is another reason for which the situation in the pension system has become difficult. The unified pensions law is criticised by both opposition parties and trade unions in the state sector.
On Thursday, half of the Romanian teaching staff went on an all out strike, unhappy with their salaries getting low as a result of the application of the unified payment scheme, the education law and announced layoffs starting this autumn. The protest affected the IT skills exam of the baccalaureate, scheduled on April 22nd. Trade unionists say that unless their claims are met, they are going to call an indefinite all out strike in late May.
Romania’s President Traian Basescu has this week travelled to Brussels, where he held talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. The European official has reasserted, among other things, the need for Bucharest to cut down public expense, which is a serious burden on the budget deficit, to carry on the reform of the judiciary and the fight against corruption. Barroso also said that the law regulating the functioning of the National Integrity Agency, in charge of checking dignitaries’ wealth, needs a solid legal base, that would guarantee its total independence and allow it to carry out investigations. The activity of this agency has been recently restricted, as the Constitutional Court ruled that some of the provisions of the law regulating this body’s activity run counter to the Constitution.
On Wednesday, the Romanian Government adopted a draft law on Constitution revision, which provides for turning the Romanian legislative into a single chamber parliament and cutting the number of parliamentarians down to a maximum of 300. According to PM Emil Boc, the draft is aimed at getting the Romanian Constitution in line with the outcome of the national referendum held in November 2009. The draft law also provides for a one month deadline for Parliament to endorse a referendum, 10 days to approve a new government and its governing program, and also doing away with the need for an MP vote to start the criminal prosecution of ministers. Moreover, a potential president impeachment shall be interrupted if the Constitutional Court rules that the president did not break the Constitution.
The Theatre Union in Romania – UNITER - has awarded the best performances of the year 2009, at the 18th UNITER Gala Awards. The best theatre performance award went to ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead’, staged by the Magyar Theatre in Timisoara, directed by Victor Ioan Frunza. The directing award went to Alexandru Dabija for ‘Pyramus and Thisbe 4 you’, staged at the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest. ‘Jack the Sniper’ by Radu Macrinici got the best Romanian play award. The Excellence Award was won by the authors of ‘Faust’, a production of the Radu Stanca National Theatre in Sibiu, with world famous director Silviu Purcarete among the winners of this prize.
Good news from the European Judo Championships held in Vienna, Austria, where Romania got two gold medals. Olympic champion Alina Dumitru won in the 48 kg event, ahead of Hungarian Eva Csernoviczki, winning the 6th European title in her career. Also, Corina Caprioriu became champion in the 57 kg category, after beating Austrian athlete Sabrina Filzmoser.
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