Press Review - February 26, 2019

02.26.2019 By Oana Gavrila

Finance Minister Says Tax Decree Helps Local Authorities

Tax decree 114 helps local authorities through the Development Fund and it helps the construction sector, finance minister Eugen Teodorovici said Monday at a debate in Parliament.

"Decree 114 helps local authorities. Considering economic development is not at the same level in mall counties, we have created the Development and Investment Fund, through which we will allocate EUR10 billion for investments by local authorities and universities in the next 20 years,” said Teodorovici.

He added the decree helps the construction sector by raising the minimum gross wage to RON3,000, exempting construction workers from income tax and lowering their social security contribution by 3.75 percentage points.

Leu Firms Slightly Vs Euro

The Romanian leu gained a slight  0.05% against the euro Monday, standing at 4.7594 units to the euro at midday from Friday's rate of 4.7619 lei to the euro.

The leu hit record lows 11 times throughout January, sinking to an all-time low of  4.7648 units to the euro on January 25.

President Iohannis Says Justice Independence is Non-Negotiable

Romanian president Klaus Iohannis posted a message on his Facebook page after the justice minister and the prime minister met with magistrates to discuss a recent decree amending justice laws.

The president said the independence of the judiciary is non-negotiable and criticized the government for undermining the rule of law. He called for the decree to be repealed immediately.

“In a democracy, the judiciary cannot be subservient to the political and, furthermore, the sudden amendment of judicial laws in the interest of certain people or groups of people cannot qualify as an emergency (…) The actions of magistrates, institutions from this field and everyone who in the last couple of days issued warnings on this new attack against the judiciary show that Romania’s democracy is mature and reacts to abusive demeanor,” the president said in an official statement.

Social Democrats Say President Is to Blame If Child Allowances Aren't Raised in March

Social-democrats warned President Klaus Iohannis will have to apologize to all parents and children who won't get higher child allowances starting March 1 due to delays in the adoption of the state budget bill.

Iohannis refused to sign the bill into law and challenged its constitutionality. The Constitutional Court is set to discuss the challenge on March 6.