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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 19-25/12/2010 |
| (2010-12-24) |
| Last updated: 2010-12-27 14:26 EET |
Military and religious ceremonies have been held this week to commemorate 21 years since the anti-communist revolution of December 1989. Revolutionaries’ organizations participated in a commemorative march in downtown Bucharest and many ceremonies were held in Timisoara, the first city free of communism in Romania.
Over one thousand people were killed in the revolution that started in the west of country, where the army opened fire on a group of protesters. Despite the repression, authorities lost control over the city, and the revolt extended to Bucharest and other cities in Romania, culminating on December 22nd in the capital, where hundreds of thousands of people besieged the head offices of the only party in Romania, the communist party. Seized and hastily tried, dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was executed on December 25th.
The French and German Foreign Ministers have sent a letter to the main EU institutions calling for a postponement of Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen agreement, invoking the lack of control the migratory flows and organized crime.
With their entry into the Schengen area, initially planned to take place in March next year, the two countries would become borders of the EU, with 75% of illegal immigration in Europe transiting the south-east of the continent, Paris and Berlin both stressed.
In Bucharest, president Traian Basescu termed as discriminatory France’s and Germany’s gesture, and said the introduction of criteria other than technical in the assessment of the capacity of a member state to join the free circulation zone would create a dangerous precedent.
Two months later than planned, the 2011 state and social security budgets were eventually passed by Parliament, in the form set forth by the government, as the opposition’s amendments were rejected by the parliamentary majority. According to PM Emil Boc, these budgets favour investment, ensure payment of pensions and an addition of 15% to state employees salaries, which dropped by 25% this summer.
The main indicators that the budget was built on are a 1.5% economic growth, a 4.4% deficit, as compared to 6.8% of the GDP this year, a 5.8% inflation and a 7.8% unemployment rate. The PM has stated that after two years of crisis the 2011 budget will help Romania overcome the economic recession. The opposition, made up of the Social Democratic Party, the Conservative Party and the National Liberal Party, voted against what they described as “a poverty budget” that does not support the business environment and will not contribute to economic recovery.
The passing of the state budget was crucial for the disbursement of a fresh installment of the 20 billion Euro aid given to Romania by the IMF, the EU and other international financial institutions. The decision regarding the next payment, worth 900 million Euros, is to be made in January.
This week, the Romanian government has approved an additional letter of intent, agreed upon together with the IMF, following this autumns’ assessment mission. The government commits itself to go ahead with the reduction in the number of public sector employees and taxation, but only provided the economy recovers.
On Monday, Romanian parliament rejected the censure motion on the draft law regarding salaries for state employees in 2011, so the law that the Boc government took responsibility for, was passed. The opposition accused the government of using the law to turn a temporary measure into a permanent one.
On Thursday the framework law on the singly salary scheme was also adopted, since no MP cast their vote on the no-confidence motion filed by the opposition. Only the MPs supporting the government attended the voting proceeding, as the opposition MPs decided to step back, following an extreme situation occurring during the debates.
In protest against the austerity measures taken by the government to deal with the economic crisis, an employee of the public television threw himself from a balcony in the room where the proceedings were underway. The man suffered injuries and was taken to hospital.
The Romanian Government has decided that the car pollution tax be increased starting next year by 45- 50% and also apply to Euro 5 vehicles. The increase will be double or even triple for old and heavy polluting cars. Environment Minister Laszlo Borbely has stated that those who have already started registration procedures will benefit from a postponing, if they do not manage to finalize their dossiers by the end of the year.
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