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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 16-22/08/2010 |
| (2010-08-20) |
| Last updated: 2010-08-23 10:53 EET |
One of the worst tragedies ever in the Romanian health system occurred early this week in a maternity in Bucharest. 11 newborn babies, who were in incubators because of being born preterm, were engulfed by flames, most likely because of improvised wiring in an air conditioner. Unsupervised at the moment the fire broke out, some of the babies died from severe burns. The others are in a bad state, but remain stable. An investigation is underway, and meanwhile the management of the maternity has been put on leave indefinitely. As a result of the incident, Health Minister Cseke Attilla said his ministry is trying to unfreeze some positions in the state health system, which is short by thousands of workers.
The Romanian government on Wednesday passed its first budget adjustment this year. According to them, in the redistribution of funding priority was given to public investment, providing co-financing for running European projects, supporting SMEs and providing late payments in the health system, as well as providing payment for pensions. Here is Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu with details:
“There are a few ministries that received additional funds, especially the Labor Ministry, with a total of 4.4 billion, the Health Ministry, with 2.9 billion, meant to pay debts incurred by public hospitals, the Environment Ministry, with an additional 241 million for providing co-financing for European Union funded projects. Also, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Communications received almost 50 million”.
The money used for this adjustment was taken mainly from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of Defense. According to Prime Minister Emil Boc, this budget adjustment is aimed at maintaining the budget deficit within the 6.8% of the GDP limit.
On Monday, Russia declared a Romanian diplomat persona non grata, and he was given 48 hours to leave the country. Gabriel Grecu, first secretary with the Romanian Embassy in Moscow, was detained by the Russian security services for trying to elicit military intelligence from a Russian citizen. In reply, the Romanian Foreign Ministry ordered a Russian diplomat with the Russian Embassy in Bucharest to leave the country, and issued an official protest, accusing Russia of violating the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations. Here is Doris Mircea, director of communications with the Romanian Foreign Ministry:
“According to Article 29 of the above mentioned convention, a diplomat’s person is inviolable. He cannot be under any form of arrest or detention”.
Moscow said that Romania’s banning of its diplomat was an unfriendly act, and said it reserved the right to take additional measures.
In a meeting held outside the regular schedule, deputies passed the law regulating the National Integrity Agency. The voting session took place after the opposition Social Democratic Party representatives, unhappy with the law’s stipulations, left the room. They claim the bill is incomplete, unconstitutional, and may turn the National Integrity Agency into a political weapon. The authority’s purpose is that of verifying the legality of assets held by public office holders, and the law that regulates its operation was up for debate in Parliament after some of its provisions were twice ruled unconstitutional. Prime Minister Emil Boc said:
“We need this law to show our citizens, openly and transparently, that the political class has no reservations in checking the assets of public office holders.”
The Senate Judicial and Human Rights Committees later amended the law in accordance to proposals made by the Chamber of Deputies. The bill is now pending approval by the Senate.
The French authorities on Thursday began to repatriate 370 Romanian citizens of Roma origin, the first group after Paris had tightened its policy towards this minority group. The French government has recently announced it would expel the Romanian and Bulgarian gypsies who committed crimes on French territory, and will dismantle their illegal encampments. Paris has criticized Bucharest for the inefficiency of its inclusion programmes, and suggested it might block Romania’s entry into the Schengen area. Bucharest has rejected the idea that its Schengen accession could be dependent on the situation of a minority, adding that the Roma issue is a European problem. President Traian Basescu said that, although he understands the problems the Roma encampments create for French cities, the right of every citizen to travel freely around the European Union has to be observed. He recalled that, as early as 2008, Romania called for a pan-European programme concerning the integration of the Roma, but that there were countries who declared that such a programme would be unnecessary.
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