Romania’s FM and Central Electoral Bureau agree measures to streamline voting process abroad
Foreign Ministry and the Central Electoral Bureau in Romania have agreed upon a series of measures to facilitate the voting process for Romanian citizens outside the country. As a result, one option to streamline the process would be that voters download the necessary affidavit forms from the electoral bureau’s website prior to presenting themselves to the polling stations. Another proposal made by the FM is that the number of booths inside the existing polling stations be supplemented in order to speed up the voting process.
Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean has also suggested the ministry could send diplomats to help the personnel in the polling stations. Central Electoral Bureau has accepted most of the proposals so far but President Marian Muhulet underlined that the affidavit stating the fact that an elector has not voted somewhere else should be signed only in the presence of the electoral commission, although it can be filled in outside the polling station.
The measures follow a series of complaints made after the first round of the presidential elections on November 2nd when many Romanians living abroad could not exercise their right to vote due to prolonged waiting time.
European Commission autumn forecast: Romania is out of technical recession
Gross domestic product (GDP) has risen by 1% in the third trimester of 2014 compared to the second one, after two consecutive quarters of decrease which means Romania is out of technical recession, according to autumn forecast data published this Tuesday by the European Commission.
On a year-to-year basis, the EU executive estimates a 1.1 % growth between July and September 2014 for Romania’s economy.
First official data from the National Institute of Statistics regarding evolution of the GDP in the third quarter is to be released on November 14th.
For the last trimester of 2014, the European Commission estimates a 1.6 % economic growth for Romania both against the previous quarter and on a year-to-year basis.
EC forecasts a smaller growth rate for 2015, of only 0.5% from one quarter to another and has downgraded economic growth forecasts to 2% from 2.4 % in 2014 and to 2.5% from 2.6% in 2015, as estimated in May.
Romania”s energy strategy to enter public debate after elections
Romania’s energy strategy will become subject to public debate after the elections so that the document be not used for electoral purposes, according to relevant minister Razvan Nicolescu who has underlined that the main goal of this strategy is the country’s energy security.
Răzvan Nicolescu: We can join Denmark, by 2020, as the only countries to produce more primary energy than they consume and this aspect becomes even more significant as our Romania seems to acquire a regional strategic role in this sector.
In accordance with a ministerial decree issued by delegate minister Răzvan Nicolescu, all companies in the energy sector with state ownership must draft a minimum-10-year development strategy.
Court sets new hearing date for Romanian ex-prison chief charged with crimes against humanity
Bucharest Court of Appeal has established a new sitting date for November 19th in a trial regarding Alexandru Vişinescu, a former Romanian prison commander charged with crimes against humanity for torturing and causing the deaths of 12 political prisoners in the 1950s and 1960s. The court announced that several new witnesses will be heard. Vişinescu has been brought today with a warrant in court after failing to show at the last hearing. He has not entered a plea yet and stated that he plans to testify later. The judges also ruled that The National Administration of the Penitentiary in Romania and the Interior Ministry will remain parties in this trial, moreover they could pay damages alongside the defendant.
Alexandru Vişinescu has been brought to justice this summer and he is the first of 35 former communist prison commanders who could be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Most of the political prisoners in the ’50s died in prison due to lack of proper food and medicine, beatings or lack of heating systems in their cells.
UK study shows immigrants contributed more to the country’s budget than they earned
A new study published in the UK shows that immigrants coming from EU’s new member states have contributed more to British public finance compared to their overall earnings. According to calculations made by a university migration-analysis center, citizens coming from Eastern Europe living in Britain have supported the country’s budget with almost 5 billion pounds between 2004 and 2011.
Challengers of the report claim that only the young labor force has been taken into account and that in time, by aging and developing health problems, this will become more and more expensive.
BBC has reported that the study tends to over-ignite the ongoing public debate on immigration, especially as PM David Cameron is ready to make use of this issue to condition Britain’s stay in the EU by a change of rules regarding free movement within the European Union.
23 new-generation drugs to be included on national subsidy list
Romania’s government has decided to include 23 new-generation drugs on the list of partially or fully subsidized medicines. Health minister Nicoale Banicioiu says the new choice represents a cheaper alternative to the existing drugs on the list, with 29 therapeutic indications such as heart and inflammatory diseases, hepatitis B, leukaemia, lymphoma, malignant tumors, chronic kidney failure, glaucoma and ARV drugs for HIV/AIDS. The list will be updated by the end of the year and pharmacies are to be checked up for compliance to the new list.
Successful first-time hybrid procedure for treatment of aortic aneurysm in Romania
For the first time in Romania cardiovascular surgeons in Bucharest have managed a successful hybrid procedure for the treatment of aortic aneurysm on a 82-year old male patient with major risk to undergo classic surgery. Chief surgeon Theodor Cebotaru has explained that the bypass procedure has been performed on a beating heart under general anesthesia but without using a heart-lung blood circulation system thus reducing trauma to a minimum and making possible a fast postoperative recovery.
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