Senate

A burgeoning row between administrative staff protesting a civil service overhaul and academics seeking to avoid further upheaval just six months after a similar dispute was resolved has left the country’s two largest universities in a state of virtual paralysis.

The Senate of Belgrade University is to ask the Conference of Universities of Serbia, comprised of both state and private universities, to form a commission to review claims that the Interior Minister plagiarised his PhD thesis.

Several members of the new cabinet sworn in earlier this month appear to be questioning decisions taken by their predecessors, particularly as relates to a much-delayed mobility scheme foreseeing a streamlining of the civil service.

Senate Speaker Calin Popescu-Tariceanu said on Tuesday he deeply regrets the fact that over the past few years "we had to witness an attempt to disband the Senate."

The ruling coalition will suggest Parliament convene early this July in an extraordinary session to ratify Moldova's association agreement with the European Union and vote on a draft law reducing the social security contributions (CAS) by five percentage points, Prime Minister Victor Ponta said Monday.

The leader of the Democratic Liberal Senators, Dumitru Oprea, on Wednesday asked the Senators attending the plenary session of the Chamber to vote on inviting President Basescu to participate in the ceremonies occasioned by the Senate's 150th anniversary.

Orson Wells was at least partly right when he said: “Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in the Senate.” Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a better instrument for democracy than the ballot box.