ForMin Aurescu, LabMin Alexandru to be heard in specialist committees

The joint foreign policy, European affairs and labor committees of the Senate will hear on Monday, from 12:00, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu and Minister of Labor Violeta Alexandru.

The topic of the hearing is the way in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection managed the travel of some Romanian workers abroad, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Senate's website mentions.

The interim president of the Senate, Robert Cazanciuc, proposed on May 2 the hearing of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu.

"On May 1, 2020, Solidarity, as the workers' holiday was initially known in Romania, must urgently become a reality for thousands of Romanian workers embarked on planes and taken to work in the fields where the working day means 12 hours a day, seven days out of seven, as it happened two centuries ago, when they were abandoned by their country of origin and exploited by their 'adoptive' country," Cazanciuc said.

According to him, the Romanian diplomats must check what the press presents as "the suffering of Romanian workers".

He stated last week that if the hearings of the Ministers of Labor and Foreign Affairs result in "much more serious things" regarding the departure of Romanians to work abroad under pandemic conditions, a parliamentary commission of inquiry could be set up to analyze the details of these departures.

PNL Senator Alina Gorghiu announced that the two ministers will present themselves "without hesitation" at the hearing in the specialist committees of the Upper Chamber.