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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 8-14/11/2010 |
| (2010-11-12) |
| Last updated: 2010-11-15 14:36 EET |
In the past weeks, following a scandal over the passing of the pension law without quorum, the opposition in Bucharest, made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Conservative Party has not attended either the Parliament’s sessions or the consultations with the President of the state, thus blocking the Romanian Parliament’s activity. In his attempt to break the deadlock, Romania’s President Traian Basescu has addressed Parliament and has presented political parties with a moratorium, in the interest of the nation, which should allow the passing of three important laws in 45 days - the pension law- sent back by the President to Parliament, the unified salary law in the public sector and the 2011 budget. In the opinion of the Romanian President, these laws are vital for the successful completion of the accord with international lending institutions.
Traian Basescu: “The finalization of this accord would mark an important moment for Romania - the beginning of the process of overcoming the crisis. A failure to carry through the agreement with the IMF would lead to the massive depreciation of the country’s credibility on financial markets and possibly to the impossibility of making the payments stipulated in the state budget”.
The Social Democrats and the Liberals have expressed their principle agreement with such a truce, but have put certain conditions, among which replacing the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberta Anastase, who they accuse of rigging the vote for the passing of the pension law.
On Monday, Bucharest hosted the Danube Strategy Summit held under the patronage of the Romanian presidency. The summit was attended by the head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and by other officials from the Danube riparian countries. The strategy, initiated by Romania and Austria in 2008, will be launched in the first half of 2011 during the Hungarian presidency of the EU. According to Barroso, the document is an instrument for integrating and efficiently using structural funds. Bucharest says that, thanks to this project, Romania would have both economic and geo-strategic benefits. The strategy aims at capitalising on the navigation potential on the entire course of the river, at modernizing Danube ports and protecting ecosystems by creating a monitoring system.
Romania and Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen area in the spring of 2011 has been a controversial topic in the EU lately, with some countries supporting the plan and others opposing it. The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, admitted in Bucharest that there are countries which tie Romania's performance under the Justice Cooperation and Verification Mechanism to the country's Schengen accession, and that Romania will have to persuade them by making progress in the justice system. The European official emphasised however that no connection between the two aspects can be made, under the law. France is one of the countries that want Romania and Bulgaria's accession postponed. The French Minister for European Affairs, Pierre Lellouche, spoke about shortcomings in border control and in the fight against corruption, and said the two countries' joining the Schengen agreement should not be an automatic result of the technical evaluation process. In turn, the Netherlands pleads for the postponement of a decision in this respect until the release of the EC report on the countries' progress under the Cooperation and the Verification Mechanism, in the summer of 2011. Bucharest says that there are no technical reasons to defer the accession. But this is a political decision, which requires the unanimity of the EU leaders.
Romania may play an active part in the Middle East peace process, President of Syria Bashar al Assad said during an official visit to Bucharest. The Syrian leader talked to Romanian officials about the status and prospects of bilateral relations, and attended, together with his Romanian counterpart, the signature of agreements in areas such as environment, sea transport and crime prevention and combating. The most eagerly awaited moment was the signature of an agreement on the transfer of imprisoned citizens and of an extradition treaty. Under these agreements, the Romanian – Syrian citizen Omar Hayssam, sentenced in Romania, in absentia, to 20 years in prison for his involvement in the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005, could be extradited to Romania.
On Monday, in Bucharest, Romania and the Republic of Moldova signed the bilateral border treaty. The event occurs almost twenty years since the former Soviet republic, with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population, has proclaimed its independence. Technically speaking, the official document regulates the maintenance of cross border areas, as well as the use of roads and railroads crossing the border.
The Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi said the signing of the treaty put an end to the accusations made by the communists in Chisinau regarding Romania’s alleged expansionist ambitions: “We wish this border would gradually disappear, after all conditions have been met, and would become an EU inner border. We believe this would also be a means to downplay the recurrent allegations made by certain political circles about an imaginary irredentist agenda of Romania.”
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