13 November 2017, UPDATE

Criminal investigation opens into Chamber of Deputies speaker and Social Democratic leader Liviu Dragnea.

Newsroom, 13.11.2017, 19:36

Investigation. The speaker of the
Chamber of Deputies and leader of the Social Democratic Party Liviu Dragnea is
under criminal investigation by anti-corruption prosecutors for forming a
criminal group, abuse of office and crimes related to funding fraud while he
was head of the Teleorman County Council, the National Anticorruption Directorate
has announced. 8 other people are under investigation in the case. Prosecutors
say the case has been built after a notice by the European Anti-Fraud Office on
September 30, 2016, for several crimes, such as accessing European funds based
on false documentation, claimed to be used for road repairs. Dragnea, who was
interviewed on Monday, has rejected the accusations. At present, Dragnea is
involved in one other case, prosecuted by the High Court of Cassation, in which
he is accused of instigation to commit abuse of office. In 2016, he received a
two-year suspended sentence for election fraud. In 2012, when he was the
secretary of the Social Democratic Party, Dragnea urged territorial operatives
of his party to bring people illegally to the polls in order to win the
referendum to impeach the then president, Traian Basescu.

PESCO. Romania’s foreign and defence ministers, Teodor
Melescanu and Mihai Fifor, respectively, as well as their EU counterparts,
signed a joint notification in Brussels on Monday towards launching the
Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO). The Romanian foreign minister said
ensuring complementariness with NATO is essential and that PESCO should also
contribute to consolidating EU-NATO cooperation in various areas. The signing
took place on the margins of the Foreign Affairs Council, whose agenda included
the preparation of the EU-the African Union summit in Abidjan, in the Ivory
Coast. Romania’s participation in PESCO was approved by the Country’s Supreme
Defence Council last month. PESCO is an initiative meant to strengthen links
between EU countries in the area of defence.

No-confidence motion. The National Liberal Party, the main right wing
opposition party in Parliament, on Monday began procedures for a no-confidence
vote against the coalition government made up of the Social Democratic Party
and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. The Liberals also requested the
Ombudsman to challenge the tax reform promoted by the government in the
Constitutional Court. On Sunday night, thousands of people took to the streets
in Bucharest and other cities to protest against the government’s new measures
and the bills on the amendment of the laws governing the justice system. Both
the prime minister Mihai Tudose and the Social Democratic leader Liviu Dragnea
said they would not reconsider their planned changes to the tax code, which
they say would bring in more revenues to the budget and the pension fund, while
also simplifying procedures for businesses.

IMF. In its latest report made public on Monday, the
International Monetary Fund says that several emerging economies, such as
Hungary, Poland, Romania, a number of countries in the Western Balkans and the
Community of Independent States still run relatively high budget deficits. The
Fund advises these countries to improve the quality of their public spending
and to change their revenue structure in order to preserve the competitiveness
of the regions. The International Monetary Fund has improved its forecast for
most areas in Europe, but points out that countries should make room in their
budgets for manoeuvres allowing them to stay afloat in times of difficulty. The
Fund opines that decision makers should take advantage of the improved
prospects to rebuild their reserves and enhance the ability of their economies
to grow and to absorb shocks.

Tennis. The Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer
on Tuesday face the Finnish-Australian pair Henri Kontinen and John Peers in their second match at
the ATP World Tour Finals in London. In their first match on Sunday, Tecau and
Rojer lost to the all-French pair Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas
Mahut. This is the fifth time Tecau plays in the World Tour Finals doubles after 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015,
the last time he was there winning the title together with Rojer.