April 24, 2019 UPDATE

President Iohannis met Venice Commission delegation in Bucharest, Minister Leş in video conference with Romanian military abroad

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Newsroom, 24.04.2019, 19:55

Venice Commission — The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday met in Bucharest with a Venice Commission delegation. He considers that the modification of the criminal and criminal procedure codes, passed by Parliament on Wednesday, represented bad lawmaking which deliberately creates instability within the justice system. The president highlighted that, despite the Constitutional Court identifying many irregularities in the two draft laws for the modification of the codes, Parliament and the Social Democrats once again ignored the Court’s decisions and the recommendations of the opposition and of the magistrates’ associations, reviewing the bills in the same superficial, non-transparent manner. Also on Wednesday the Venice Commission delegation met with the outgoing justice minister Tudorel Toader to discuss aspects related to the justice laws, with focus on the 5 emergency decrees initiated by the line ministry and passed in the last 7 months. Toader presented the legislative and institutional context that entailed changes and amendments to the 3 justice laws as well as the reasons underlying the adoption of some of the legislative norms included in the 5 decrees.

Resignation — Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday signed the decrees on the resignation of justice minister Tudorel Toader, the minister of European funds Rovana Plumb and the minister for the Romanians abroad Natalia Intotero and on appointing interim ministers to replace them. The vice prime minister Ana Birchal will take over the justice portfolio, the finance minister Eugen Teodorovici will take over the ministry of European funds and the minister for the business, trade and entrepreneurship Ștefan-Radu Oprea will take over the ministry for the Romanians abroad. On Tuesday president Iohannis rejected the proposals made by the Social Democrats, the main party in the ruling coalition, for the three vacancies, claiming that the respective persons did not meet the job requirements.

Land Forces — On the occasion of the Land Forces Day and of the Easter celebrations the Romanian defence minister Gabriel Leş and the chief of staff of the Romanian Army general Nicolae Ciucă held talks on Wednesday, in a videoconference, with the Romanian soldiers deployed in the theatres of operations in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Poland. Minster Leş thanked the Romanian military for doing their duty and wished them happy celebrations. The Romanian military presented the security situation in their area of responsibility and the progress of their missions. According to a Defence Ministry communiqué in 2019 the Romanian Army contributes more than 690 soldiers to the NATO Resolute Support in Afghanistan, and another 250 are deployed in theatres of operations in other regions under NATO, EU, UN and OSCE command.

Tennis — The Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecău/Jean-Julien Rojer will take on Thursday the pair Jamie Murray (UK)/Bruno Soares (Brazil/N.2) in the quarterfinals of the ATP tennis tournament of Barcelona, which has total prizes of more than 2.6 million Euros. On Tuesday Tecău/ Rojer defeated 2-0 the Spanish pair David Marrero/Fernando Verdasco. The pair Jamie Murray (UK)/Bruno Soares (Brazil) won, 2-1, the match against the pair Ivan Dodig (Croatia)/Edouard Roger-Vasselin (France). (translation and update by L. Simion)