Romania has just passed from a technocrat Government to a political one, and everybody will keep an eye on the new cabinet led by Sorin Grindeanu to see how it will manage to fulfill its governing program. However, this is not the only major political topic in Romania this year, as the country’s Schengen entry and the legal definition of family are also on the agenda for 2017.

Romania has ended 2016 with a major political event – the parliamentary elections, which will definitely bring some significant changes in the country this year. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) was the big winner of the elections and formed a majority in the country’s new Parliament after signing a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democratic Alliance (ALDE). Thus, PSD and ALDE were the ones in charge of proposing the new Prime Minister. Although Sevil Shhaideh was their first proposal, President Klaus Iohannis didn’t accept it, and so they had to make a second proposal – Sorin Grindeanu. The President agreed with this proposal and Romania’s new Government is to be sworn in and start work this week.

Some of the most anticipated measures to be taken by the new Government include the increase in the minimum gross salary, higher pensions, tax exemptions for pensioners, and a high EU funds absorption rate. Moreover, a law that removes 102 non-fiscal taxes should also come into force in the coming weeks. The justice system could also see some changes this year, which some say may affect the work carried out by the National Anticorruption Department (DNA).

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The National Liberal Party (PNL), which only got about 20% of the votes in the parliamentary elections, should appoint a new leadership in the coming months. PNL president Alina Gorghiu decided to resign in mid-December 2016, soon after the elections’ results were announced. Raluca Turcan, the head of PNL Sibiu, took over as interim president at that moment, but a new leadership is to be appointed during the party’s National Convention. Chamber of Deputies’ vice-president Catalin Predoiu, a former justice minister, has already announced his candidacy. Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos, who ends his mandate once the new cabinet is validated, has also been indicated as a possible candidate for PNL's leadership, but this was before the elections and many liberals may have changed their view after he didn't step in to help the party gain more votes.

Romania’s Schengen entry has been a hot topic for years. Mina Andreeva, the European Commission (EC) spokesperson, said last April that the EC considered that Romania and Bulgaria meet all the conditions to join the Schengen area. However, all EU Member States should vote on this and, so far, some of them, including the Netherlands, have been blocking Romania’s Schengen accession. Referring to Romania’s tenth anniversary as an EU Member State, PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said in a Facebook post that “2017 should be a year of vigorous involvement in European politics and, implicitly, of intensifying the efforts for accession in the Schengen Area, as a full member.” It remains to be seen what measures will the new Government take in this sense. Should the new Parliament and Government decide to put a break to Romania's anticorruption efforts, this would reduce rather than increase the country's chances of joining Schengen.

The Canadian Government is to remove visas for all Romanians travelling to Canada starting December 1. Romania and Canada reached an agreement in this sense on October 21, 2016, but the Canadian Government’s decision was conditioned by the signing of the free trade agreement between the European Union and Canada (CETA). The agreement was signed at the end of October.

The legal definition of family could also suffer some changes, as a national referendum on revising Romania’s Constitution so that it defines the family as being made of a man and a woman may be organized this year. This initiative is backed by some three million Romanians who signed a petition in 2016. The big political parties in Romania have supported the idea of a referendum in the campaign for the parliamentary elections. Meanwhile, a gay couple who got married in Belgium and want to have their marriage recognized in Romania are still waiting for a ruling from the Constitutional Court (CCR), which has already postponed a decision in this case four times. Read more about their case here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com