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| The Week in Review 27.04.2013 |
| (2013-04-27) |
| Last updated: 2013-05-03 13:59 EET |
The Romanian Government has dismantled the fiscal supervision bodies and clustered them into one single institution.
Top Brussels officials have visited Bucharest this week
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has spoken before the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly
Former Social-Democrat Senator Catalin Voicu has been sentenced to 7 years in prison for corruption
By this autumn, Romania will have pulled out a quarter of its 1 thousand 5 hundred military deployed in Afghanistan
The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu is back to Cannes
Strengthening fiscal supervision
The Romanian Government has dismantled all the financial supervision authorities, except for those of the National Bank of Romania, and clustered them into one single institution. Thus, the National Securities Commission, the Insurance Overseeing Commission and the Private Pension System Overseeing Commission have this week become the Financial Overseeing Authority, whose mission is to solve the flaws on the capital and insurance markets. On this occasion, Prime Minister Victor Ponta asked for the salaries of the authority’s staff to be established in keeping with the central bank’s standards. Prior to this salaries had been way higher than those of regular people. Prime Minister Ponta also called for solutions to tax salaries of directors of state-owned companies, currently exceeding 3 thousand Euros per month, whereas a resident doctor, for instance, gets ten times less.
Prime Minister Victor Ponta : “I’m not saying they should not be paid, but maybe we should see why thousands of such managers are paid the way they are. They have a very easy life in these companies.”
So easy, in fact, that the IMF firmly demanded that, in order for state-owned companies to get rid of political parasites, they should have private management, that is, independent professionals able to manage them and turn them into profitable companies.
Bucharest and the European Union
This week, Bucharest has been visited by two Brussels officials: the European Commissioner for Employment Laszlo Andor and the European Council President Herman van Rompuy. Laszlo Andor has pleaded the physicians’ cause, who, he says, should get higher salaries, which would thus prevent them from leaving the country. Also he approached the Roma issue, as Bucharest has two big problems regarding the inclusion of ethnic Roma: insufficient resources and bad investments. Herman van Rompuy appreciated Romania’s political stability and economic performances and promised support for the Schengen accession. In another move, President Traian Basescu did not hide his satisfaction over Romania’s exit from the excessive deficit procedure.
Traian Basescu :“ We are happy to be one of the first countries that have managed to exit the excessive deficit procedure, which is now applied to 20 countries.”
The European Commission President came with good news too, as the Commission decided to resume payments for four of the five sectors of the Regional Operational Program, which had been pre-suspended due to implementation flaws reported in the 2009- 2011 period. The four sectors are: supporting sustainable development, improving social infrastructure, supporting regional and local business environments and sustainable development and tourism promotion.
Prime Minister Victor Ponta at the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly
To celebrate 20 years since Romania joined the Council of Europe, the Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has this week spoken before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Strasbourg Forum. Romania is now politically stable and predictable, though last year it was seen as lacking stability, Ponta told the Assembly. According to the Romanian Prime Minister, this country is fully committed to the values promoted by the Council of Europe: democracy, rule of law and the observance of human rights.
Sentences for Corruption
After three years of trials, the protagonists of what the Romanian media has termed ‘the Voicu Octopus’ have got their sentences. The court has ruled that former Social-Democrat Senator Catalin Voicu is the embodiment of generalized corruption. He had built himself a broad network corrupt police officers, judges, politicians and business people, through which he tried to influence court decisions for his own benefit. Found guilty of influence peddling, Voicu was sentenced to 7 years in prison. In the same case, two business people and a former Supreme Court judge also got prison sentences.
The Romanian Army and Afghanistan
By this autumn, Romania will have pulled out a quarter of its 1 thousand 5 hundred military deployed in Afghanistan. The Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces, Lt. General Sorin Ioan has more details:
VM “We are gradually downsizing our troops. Just like other NATO missions, the International Security Assistance Force will start reducing its participation, because this is a transition period, during which we are handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan security forces and police. In its 11 years of participation in operations, Romania has lost 22 military; another 100 have been wounded. The final pull-out is scheduled for 2014, after which Romania will participate in the training of the Afghan military.
Romanian Director Cristian Mungiu back to Cannes
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu will revisit Cannes in May, but this time not as a participant in the Cannes Film Festival, which starts on May 15th, but as member of the jury. The jury of the official competition, chaired by director Steven Spielberg, also includes Nicole Kidman, Christoph Waltz and Daniel Auteuil. To Cristian Mungiu, being invited to be a member of the jury is an opportunity to talk about cinema and filmmaking with people whom, unless you work at the Hollywood, you are very unlikely to ever meet in person. At the same time, the invitation comes as a sign of recognition of the value of Romanian cinematography.
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