Romanian deputies will debate this week the amendment to the Criminal Code and the Law on preventing, detecting and sanctioning acts of corruption
Romanian deputies will debate this week the amendment to the Criminal Code and the law on preventing, detecting and sanctioning acts of corruption. After the Senate passed these amendments last week, it will continue to discuss this week on the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA)’s request of impeaching the Chairman of the Senate, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu. Provisions declared unconstitutional have been removed from the documents, but several articles have been kept, although criticized by the opposition and considered controversial. The National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Save Romania Union (USR) said that reducing prescription, abolishing negligence in the service, and limiting the one-year period of denunciation, will have the effect of encouraging the phenomenon of crime. „The limitation has decreased from 8 to 6 years, and then, even if the prosecution has begun, the special limitation will be 9 years instead of 16. If this normative text is adopted, the amnesty will be given for the ruling Social Democrats and ALDE and their comrades”, said Ioan Cupşa, a Liberal MP. The opposition also criticized the urgency procedure proposed by the Government’s representatives for the adoption of the two legislative documents. However, the chairman of the Special Commission for the Laws of Justice, the Social Democrat Florin Iordache, said that the urgency is imposed by the delay in transposing the decisions of the Constitutional Court.
The High Court of Romania may decide on the case in which the Senate chairman has been acquitted in the first instance
The High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania may give the final sentence on Monday on the case in which the Romanian Senate chairman, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, was acquitted at first instance for perjury. The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) prosecutors accused him for false testimony as a witness in the case of the restitution of a piece of land in the Snagov Forest and a farm in Băneasa. DNA appealed in November last year, and the trial has been postponed several times since. In his last words before the magistrates, the Senate chairman described the whole process as a set-up. Dorin Marian, former chief of staff in the Presidential Administration in 2000, was also indicted for false testimony in the same case.
Workers of the Swedish factory Electrolux in Romania continue protests and head for the Swedish Embassy in Bucharest
Today begins the eighth general strike week at Electrolux, a Swedish multinational home appliance manufacturer in Romania, where employees ask for an increase of 600 lei gross salary. The leaders of the National Trade Union Confederation (Cartel Alfa) from several counties of Romania arrived Monday morning in Satu Mare city to meet with the Electrolux workers. From Satu Mare union leaders headed for the Swedish Embassy in Bucharest together with a group of strikers. On the way, protesters will stop at the big stores selling Electrolux products in some cities – Zalău, Alba Iulia, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Piteşti – and the Capital, urging the population not to buy household appliances manufactured by the Swedish company. Strikers, who set out in what they called the „boycott caravan”, want to draw attention to the fact that Electrolux employees in Satu Mare are paid ridiculous salaries.
Magda Baciu, RADOR
