16 June, 2016 UPDATE

The brother of former Romanian president Traian Basescu gets four-year prison sentence; French president Francois Hollande to travel to Romania in September.

Newsroom, 16.06.2016, 12:30

Mircea Basescu, the brother of the former
Romanian president Traian Basescu, has been sentenced to four years in prison
for influence peddling in a corruption trial prosecuted two years ago.
According to the prosecution, between February 2011 and February 2012, Mircea
Basescu received a quarter of a million euros to use his influence with
magistrates in the prosecution of a criminal case to obtain a reduced sentence
or a favourable ruling.

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis on Thursday ended
his official trip to Bulgaria with a visit to the building site of the
Giurgiu-Ruse gas pipeline, which is due to be inaugurated at the end of the
year. Also on Thursday, Iohannis visited Plevna, Grivita and Pordim, three
emblematic places that played a key role in Romania’s winning its independence
and in the liberation of Bulgaria. The Romanian president paid tribute to the
Romanian soldiers killed in the 1877 war for the liberation of Bulgaria from
under Ottoman rule. On Wednesday, Iohannis had talks with his counterpart Rosen
Plevneliev about ways to consolidate economic, political and military
cooperation between their countries. The two officials stood for boosting
defence in the Black Sea area. In a press conference held on Thursday in Sofia
together with the Bulgarian president and the country’s defence minister, the
Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borissov ruled out his country’s participation
in a joint Black Sea military fleet. Klaus Iohannis said Romania’s proposal was
in fact to create a joint naval initiative to carry out training exercises
under the NATO umbrella, and not to set up a permanent fleet.

The French president Francois Hollande will travel to Romania on the 12th
and 13th of September, the state secretary for European Affairs in
the French Foreign Ministry, Harlem Desir, told a joint press conference with
Romania’s foreign minister Lazar Comanescu. Harlem Desir, who visited the
Operational Command Centre of the Romanian Border Police, said that in matters
of border security, the cooperation between Romania and France is exemplary,
and that Bucharest has made significant progress in respect of its Schengen
accession. Lazar Comanescu said that as far as Romania is concerned, its
Schengen entry would enhance the European Union’s ability to defend its
borders. On Thursday, the two officials are paying a two-day working visit to the
Republic of Moldova, given that Romania and France are holding the presidency
of the European Action Group for Moldova.

Labour
MP Jo Cox died in hospital after she was shot and stabbed in the street in
Birstall, northern England. She was attacked in her own constituency by a man
who may have been in favour of Britain’s leaving the European Union, according
to sources quoted by the British media. The EU referendum campaigning has been
suspended for a day.

The Joint Chief Staff of Staff of the Romanian Army Nicolae Ciuca on
Thursday attended the ANAKONDA-16 multinational exercise carried out in
north-western Poland. The Romanian military contributed 250 soldiers and about
40 pieces of hardware. The exercise, which runs until the 17th of
June, brings together 25,000 soldiers from 19 NATO member countries and is the
biggest military drill held in Poland in the last 25 years.

One of the biggest performing arts festivals in
the world, the Sibiu International Theatre Festival continues with a
comprehensive programme to celebrate the 400th anniversary of
Shakespeare’s death. On Thursday and Friday, the Actors Gang company from the
US stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Oscar winning American actor Tim
Robbins, who is in Sibiu. On Saturday, he will receive a star on the city’s
Walk of Fame. The festival, which is now in its 23rd year, brings
together 2,500 participants from 70 different countries and features theatre
performances, music concerts, exhibitions, workshops, film screenings and book
launches.