KEY STORIES TODAY: A disputed Administrative code and many ordinances

The decision of the Romanian government to push through a controversial bill on administration, which may change the balance of power between the government and the president, is the key result of a government session on Tuesday.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) -led government adopted on Tuesday a controversial Administrative Code, by means of emergency ordinance. This comes a day after the Venice Commission voiced concern about Romanian authorities’ excessive use of ordinances. The Code was has been criticized as a means to protect groups of interests in the public administration – extensive report in Romania here

The new code forces the President of Romania to name a new member of the government within 10 days upon request and allows him one time to refuse the proposal – detailed report in Romanian here

President Iohannis described the adoption of the Administrative Code as part of a more extensive plan of the Social Democrats to retain power and serve its influential branch leaders – more in Romanian here

Also today, the government adopted an emergency ordinance regulating ridesharing activities, which influences the activities of companies such as Uber, Bolt or Clever. It comes after pressure to intervene following the adoption of a recent bill on taxi activities which affected Uber-style businesses. – more in Romanian here

In total, the government adopted no less then 10 emergency ordinances on Tuesday, a day after Venice Commission criticism about the practice. More on the adopted ordinances, in Romanian here. More on the Commission criticism in English here

The Elie Wiesel institute has proposed for a Holocaust Museum to be built on premises currently belonging to the Natural History Museum „Antipa” in Bucharest, in the wake of failed talks to use another address. This has sparked discontent as the area is considered protected, but the director of the Institute claimed that this did not mean buildings couldn’t be risen there. More on this in Romanian here

Finance minister Eugen Teodorovici used a forum on Tuesday to present details of a fiscal amnesty he said was not an amnesty, but a sort of financial restructuring. It would be applied to all debtors with debts of more than RON 1 million at December 31, 2018 and would involve the erasure of up to a half of the debt – detailed report in Romanian

Also of interest, story in English from across Romanian media – what Romanian newspaper Libertatea has found, questioning a New York Times report on an immigrant family from Romania