Gov't to pass emergency ordinance to move Romania from state of emergency to state of alert

The government will adopt today an emergency ordinance regulating the measures for Romania's transition to a state of alert from a state of emergency declared as a result of the novel coronavirus epidemic that ends on May 15.

"Today, we will have to adopt a piece of legislation, an emergency ordinance to regulate all the necessary measures for the transition from a state of emergency to a state of alert, especially those measures concerning the rights of citizens, incentives that we granted for the state of emergency and that we will extend beyond. We will have to regulate all the necessary measures in the field of health, in the field of education, so that we can face the challenges that will definitely be extremely important, especially as far as organising academic exams (...) for the whole time of the alert state," Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said at the beginning of a government meeting on Thursday.

Deputy Prime Minister Raluca Turcan announced the introduction on the supplementary agenda of the meeting of an ordinance on the extension until the beginning of June of some support measures for persons and companies taken during the state of emergency in some restricted areas, at the same time with economic recovery measures.

"We must take into account the decision of the Constitutional Court as the change must not affect rights and freedoms, because rights and freedoms can only be temporarily affected by law and Parliament has adopted a law to that end that will come into force on Monday," Orban added.