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| The Week in Review 23-29/01/2011 |
| (2011-01-28) |
| Last updated: 2011-01-31 13:10 EET |
In Bucharest a new joint mission of the IMF, the World Bank and the European Commission is assessing the way in which Romania has met the obligations assumed under the Stand-By Accord signed in 2009. We recall that the total bail out package agreed upon with big world financers stands at 20 billion euros. The head of the IMF mission for Romania, Jeffrey Franks, said that the Romanian economy was like a patient stabilized after surgery, but with no vital signs, that is, it did not see any growth. The mission’s 2nd objective is negotiating a new accord between Romania and the IMF. That will be a precautionary agreement, meaning that the money disbursed to Romania will only be accessed in case of emergency and will, most likely, be valid for two years.
Social partners have decided to continue negotiations next week on the law package regarding the labor force market regulation. Thursday’s talks between partners were chaired by Prime Minister Emil Boc. After the completion of the Labour Code, they will negotiate the Social Code will includes the trade union law, the law of the employers’ associations, the labor conflict law and the collective labour agreement law. Trade unions want collective labour agreements for an indefinite period of time, but have accepted that in certain conditions collective labour agreements be signed for a definite period of up to 2 years.
Prime Minister Emil Boc has called on the Fiscal Authority and the Council of Competence to thoroughly verify the activity of oil companies in Romania, suspected of raising dramatically and unjustifiably the fuel prices and see whether there had been a monopoly. The suspicion is legitimate, in the Prime Minister’s opinion, given that all companies have increased fuel prices, almost at the same time and with identical percentages. In 2010, the increase was 20% and it drove common car-owners and transporters to despair, as the latter fear their own companies will go bankrupt. Drivers resorted to unprecedented protests, buying small amounts of gas or Diesel oil and using low-value coins to pay.
Romanian president Traian Basescu has invited the Prime Minister and various ministers for talks, after the High Court of Cassation and Justice ruled the suspension of the recalculation of military, police and special service pensions. Basescu has called on the government to observe the ruling of the High Court of Cassation and Justice and issue a new resolution to extend the military pension recalculation deadline until the end of the year, taking into account elements invalidated by courts of law. Even after the High Court’s ruling and the president’s announcement, pensioners of aforementioned categories continued the series of protests both in Bucharest and throughout the country. They claim that the government’s decision was not transparent. They also say that many military find it absolutely impossible to obtain, in due time, the seniority documents requested for recalculation.
The setting up of the Centre-Right Alliance, which brings together the National Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, the Romanian opposition’s first move at the beginning of the pre-election year, was followed this week by the announcement that a new Left-Right coalition was officially established. The protagonists are the Social Democratic Party, the main opposition party, and the National Liberal Party.
Opinion polls show that the Social Democratic Party and the Centre-Right Alliance would jointly obtain two thirds of the seats in the future Parliament. Social Democrat leader Victor Ponta is expected to become the head of a future Left-Right coalition government, while Liberal Crin Antonescu, is to be Romania’s future president. They both say that, despite doctrinarian differences, they will manage to build together a viable alternative to the current government made up of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania. That comes against the background of a speedy drop in the government’s and the president’s popularity.
The Constitutional Court in Romania has announced that the Senate’s validation of the High Council of Magistrates’ members was illegal. The ruling sparked an institutional conflict but in order to solve it, there is no legal procedure. Things are further entangled because the Court’s ruling does not make it clear if the entire High Council of Magistrates’ should be invalidated or just the contested members. Opinions are divided as regards the way to get out of the deadlock. Some suggest that the Council continue its activity with members who have not been contested by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Others propose that the council’s prerogatives be temporarily relegated to the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Most people, however, stand for the revalidation of the Council’s members by the Senate.
During the first part of the week, heavy snowfalls and snow blizzards wreaked havoc on roads, especially in the South and South-East of the country. Many national and county roads were closed or blocked. In other areas, the ice and glazing frost caused traffic jams and sideslips. Several localities reported power cuts. The Romanian Railroad Company cancelled a series of train connections between Bucharest and the South-East of the country, while other trains had big delays. After snowfalls and snow blizzards, Romanians now face extreme cold, with temperatures slumping to –20C in many areas of the country.
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