Press Review - November 20, 2017

11.20.2017 By Oana Gavrila

Senate Defense Committee Meet Monday To Approve Patriot Missile System Acquisition

The Romanian Senate's committee for defense meets Monday to discuss the acquisition of Patriot missile systems from the United States.

Ruling party leader Liviu Dragnea said the bill regarding the acquisition would feature on the Senate’s Monday afternoon agenda and criticized ruling coalition lawmakers for being absent from the previous committee meeting.

The opposition last week accused ruling coalition senators of trying to block the bill after they were absent from the committee’s meeting, which included the missiles acquisition on its agenda.

The Romanian Government on November 8 approved the bill on the acquisition of seven surface-to-air missile PATRIOT systems worth an estimated $3.9 billion net of VAT.

The purchase will be made pending approval from the Romanian parliament and is part of Romania's essential endowment program called “Long-range surface-to-air missile system”. The first of the seven systems has an estimated value of $764.78 million before VAT and will be acquired by yearend.

European Medicines Agency Relocation Decided Monday on Secret Vote

The future location of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will be decided Monday following a secret political vote.

The EMA currently has its headquarters in London, but will be relocated post-Brexit. Bucharest and 18 other European cities, including Vienna, Brussels, Sofia, Bratislava, Milan, and Barcelona have offered to host the agency.

The Financial Times wrote last week Bratislava and Milan were among the favored locations. Diplomatic sources said Italy was willing to make several concessions, including sending more NATO troops to Baltic states, in exchange for hosting the European agency.

Transport Ministry Seeks to Install EUR25M Noise-Reducing Panels, Asphalt on Roads

Romania's Transport Ministry put up for public debate a bill to install noise-reducing panels and low-noise asphalt on roads where traffic noise exceeds a certain level of decibels.

The cost of implementing the project is estimated at around EUR25 million.

The bill aims to implement a European directive on environmental noise and Romania will seek EU funding for the project.

Romanian Doctors Could Be Made to Be On Call 48 Hours/Week

Doctors could be forced to be on call 48 hours a week instead of 35 hours a week and would be paid considering their current salary levels, not the higher levels to be implemented through the public sector wage law.

Union members said the proposition was absurd and doctors on call for more than 35 hours a week would not be able to perform well on hospital duties.

Antitrust Investigations Should Be Confidential, Says Antitrust Body President

Competition Council president Bogdan Chiritoiu confirmed Sunday evening the body was notified by the Agriculture ministry over a sharp rise in food prices but called for confidentiality in such matters.

“We have indeed received a notification from the agriculture ministry anon November 15 and it is under analysis. (...) But if we announce verification, people will hide things and keep their guard up. We need to maintain a certain level of confidentiality,” said Chiritoiu.

Agriculture minister Petre Daea said Saturday the ministry had notified antitrust authorities after the shelf prices of eggs and meat soared and producers said they hadn't raised their prices.