10 December 2015
Romania's Supreme Defence Council chaired by president Klaus Iohannis meets in Bucharest to discuss terrorism and the budgets of national security bodies.
Newsroom, 10.12.2015, 12:00
The joint permanent bureaus of the Romanian Parliament today submit their amendments to the state budget and social security budget bills, which will be debated on Friday by the joint budget and finance committees. A final vote is expected after the bills are debated by the specialist committees and in a joint meeting of the two Parliament houses. The bills on the 2016 state and social security budget approved by government were submitted on Wednesday to Parliament with the request to be debated and adopted as part of an emergency procedure.
President Klaus Iohannis is chairing a meeting of the Romanian Supreme Defence Council, the first to be attended by members of the Ciolos cabinet. Talks focus, among others, on the deployment plan for the Romanian troops sent to missions and operations abroad next year and the 2016 budgets of the bodies with national security responsibilities. The Supreme Defence Council will also analyse the measures taken by Romania to implement the regime of international sanctions, as well as the report on the national system for the prevention and combating of terrorism.
Romanias trade deficit deepened in the first ten months of the year by 1.5 billion euros compared with the same period last year, to reach 6.4 billion euros. According to the National Institute for Statistics, exports accounted for almost 46 billion euros, while imports stood at a little over 52 billion. Cars and transport equipment, as well as other types of manufactured goods held the biggest shares in Romanias exports and imports in the first ten months of the year.
The director of the Evenimentul Zilei daily Dan Andronic has been detained by prosecutors as part of investigations into the illegal return of property confiscated by the communist regime to the rightful owners. A business man, an advisor to the former Liberal prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu and the director of a well-known real estate developer have also been detained as part of the same inquiry. The damage is estimated in this case at 136 million euros. A number of politicians, including the Liberal Ioan Oltean, have been investigated recently for involvement in cases of illegal return of property or illegal compensation granted by the National Authority for Property Restitution.
Romania face defending Olympic and European champions Norway in a Group D match at the World Womens Handball Championship underway in Denmark. Despite losing to Spain in their latest match, Romania have secured their qualification for the round of 16, having won against Puerto Rico and Kazakhstan. If Romania lose against Spain, their final group game with Russia on Friday will no longer decide their final place in the group. Romania are the only team to have taken part in every edition of the World Championship since 1957, winning three medals in the process: gold in 1962 and silver in 1973 and again in 2005.
(Translated by: C. Mateescu)