April 26, 2024 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 26.04.2024, 19:50
HOLIDAYS. Romanian pupils started their Easter holiday on Friday and will resume school Wednesday, May 8. Romania will also celebrate Labour Day on May 1 and the Orthodox Easter, on May 5th. Traditionally, the 1st of May is the start of the summer season, and 80,000 people are expected to travel to the seaside next week.
CORRUPTION. On Friday, Sorina Pintea, former Minister of Health, was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison for bribery, by the Cluj Court of First Instance. The prosecution started in April 2020, when Sorina Pintea was the manager of a hospital in Baia Mare (northern Romania). According to the National Anticorruption Directorate, Sorina Pintea claimed and received from the representatives of a commercial company the sums of 10,000 euros and 120,000 lei (24,000 euros), representing 7% of the value of a public procurement contract for the design and execution of the fitting-out works of the hospital’s operating room. In another move, the director of the Energy Department of the state company Oltenia Energy Compound (south-west), Liviu Cătălin Stănculescu, was detained by anti-corruption prosecutors for influence peddling. He is accused of having received a bribe of 13,000 euros from a businessman, in order to expedite the payment of outstanding invoices to the latter’s company. The prosecutors requested from the Bucharest Court the preventive arrest of Liviu Cătălin Stănculescu.
COOPERATION. Turkey is Romania’s main commercial partner outside the EU and the first non-EU destination of Romanian exports, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Friday, after the meeting with the Vice President of Turkey, Cevdet Yilmaz, in Bucharest. The discussions focused on the current security context, the optimal ways of cooperation bilaterally and as allies within NATO. “Romania remains firmly committed to the steps already started for the development of cooperation with the Republic of Turkey, in order to achieve the objectives set by both countries at economic level, through the bilateral Strategic Partnership, as well as in the field of security, in the Black Sea region”, the prime minister said. In turn, the Turkish official said that Romania and Turkey are two countries on the Black Sea that must cooperate closely, for regional security. He mentioned the current demining agreement signed by Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey and his country’s involvement in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
INVESTMENT. The development of Romania’s strategic projects with the United Arab Emirates will contribute to the economic development of both states, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Friday at the third session of the Joint Cooperation Committee between the two governments. The Prime Minister recalled that last week he was on a working visit to the United Arab Emirates, during which he had high-level talks and discussions with representatives of companies interested in expanding their activities or investing in Romania. Marcel Ciolacu has stressed that other successful projects are also being pursued in the field of energy, agriculture, infrastructure, IT and tourism. In this context, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the UAE. The first session of this joint committee took place in April 2018, in Bucharest, and the second took place in June 2022, in the United Arab Emirates.
MOLDOVA. European integration is the best way to increase the resilience of the Republic of Moldova in the face of the current security challenges, stated, in Chisinau, the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luminiţa Odobescu. She spoke about the assistance project granted by Romania in order to increase the capacity of the authorities of the Republic of Moldova to counter unconventional security risks, with an emphasis on cyber security, critical infrastructure protection and hybrid threats. The second stage of this project was launched on Friday. “We will continue the support for the consolidation of the legal and institutional framework of the Republic of Moldova, in line with the requirements of the European Union”, minister Odobescu stressed.
MINER RAIDS. Romania’s former president Ion Iliescu was notified on Friday that he was declared a formal suspect in the case known as the Miner raids of 1990. On Thursday, the former prime minister Petre Roman, the former first deputy prime minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu, the former director of the Romanian Intelligence Service Virgil Măgureanu and other officials at the time were also officially named suspects in the case. They are accused of crimes against humanity committed in June 1990, when anti-government protests were violently stifled violence by the security forces with the aid of the miners summoned from the Jiu Valley, in the south-west.
TENNIS. The Romanian tennis player Jaqueline Cristian defeated in three sets the Czech Barbora Krejcikova on Friday, in the second round of the WTA 1,000 tournament in Madrid. The tournament has around 7.7 million euros in prize money. The singles table in Madrid also includes Romanian player Sorana Cîrstea, who on Thursday defeated the Filipina Alexandra Eala, also in three sets. Cirstea will take on in the third round the Polish Iga Swiatek, world leader and first seed at the tournament. (MI)
