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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 31/05-06/06/2010 |
| (2010-06-04) |
| Last updated: 2010-06-07 14:18 EET |
The much awaited all-out strike scheduled for May 31st, that should have paralysed Romania, eventually turned into a partial protest. More than 1 million state employees, pensioners, unemployed people and mothers – the social categories most affected by the crisis – were expected to participate in the strike. On Monday only some of the teachers, public servants, ambulance doctors and employees of the penitentiary system went on strike. On Tuesday, the solidarity protest of the underground workers had to be reconsidered and reduced to only a few hours, while ground transportation workers gave up the strike altogether. The next days saw marches, rallies and picketing across the country in which several tens of thousands of people participated. Despite the low turnout in the protest, the big trade union confederations decided to carry on with the protests next week.
Ignoring the discontent of trade unions and the opposition, the government decided to ask Parliament, on June 7th, for a vote of confidence on two draft laws including the austerity measures announced. PM Emil Boc explained that these measures are meant to ensure economic stability and prevent the current situation from worsening and not to cause discord among social categories. Emil Boc:
“We take these austerity measures to make sure, first and foremost, that we can ensure a 6.8% deficit and that we can pay the state’s obligations within the limits of this deficit. Secondly, we leave some ‘fiscal room’ for supporting investments which should continue to create jobs and create the premises for the country’s economic growth.”
Boc said that increasing the VAT and the flat tax would put a heavier burden on the private environment which would postpon economic recovery. The opposition Social Democrats and Liberals reiterated their disagreement with the austerity measures and announced they would file a motion of censure for each of the two draft laws.
The decentralisation of the health care system in Romania will take effect on July 1st. Under an emergency ordinance, passed by the government on Wednesday, as many as 400 hospitals will no longer be subordinated to the health ministry, but to the local administration. Only 62 national institutes, medical facilities of national interest and emergency hospitals will continue to be administered by the ministry. In addition, the number of beds in medical facilities will be reduced by over 9,000, but no redundancies will be made among the already insufficient medical staff.
The labour committee in the Chamber of Deputies has this week passed a draft law on the unified public pensions system in Romania, a document which will next be debated in a joint session in Parliament. The opposition’s amendment was not accepted as it required that the reference value of pensions should be 45% of the gross average salary. Instead, MPs voted in favour of the reduction of the standard retirement age for women from 65 to 63 years.
The strategic partnership and the privileged relations between Romania and the USA have been tackled this week in Washington by Romania’s foreign minister, Teodor Baconshi, and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton. The latter thanked Bucharest for the “firm commitment” of the Romanian troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The partnership has been recently reinforced by co-opting Bucharest in the American anti-missile defence system. A pending issue however is the inclusion of Bucharest in the Visa Waiver programme, which lifts visas for the Romanian citizens who want to travel to the US.
Romania’s president Traian Basescu met his Georgian counterpart Mikhail Sakashvili on Wednesday in Bucharest to discuss the relaunch of bilateral ties, particularly in the energy field. The two officials underlined the importance of implementing the AGRI project, under which liquefied natural gas is to be carried from the Caspian area to Europe, from Azerbaijan via Georgia and Romania, and reintroducing the ferry connection between the Romanian city of Constanta and Batumi, in Georgia. Also, the Romanian president reiterated Bucharest’s support for Georgia’s entry into NATO. Traian Basescu:
“Romania will not back the draft European security treaty proposed by Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev. We believe that there are mechanisms that deal with these issues, mainly the OSCE and NATO. Romania’s position is that there’s no need for a new proposal such as that coming from Moscow on top of these international structures.”
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