December 2, 2015 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 02.12.2015, 12:15

On Wednesday in
Brussels, the Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu signed, together with
general Philip Breedlove, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe
and General Denis Mercier, the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation of NATO,
the agreement that ensures the legal framework necessary for the functioning of
NATO structures in Romania. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, the
document will facilitate the operation of the two NATO command and control
structures set up in Romania this year. The agreement reflects the commitment
made by Romania with regard to strengthening collective defence along the
eastern flank, in particular ensuring the NATO presence on Romanian soil,
Comanescu said. In another move, the Romanian minister hailed NATO’s decision
to invite Montenegro to join the organization, as its 29th member. According to
minister Comanescu, this accession will bring added value to Euro-Atlantic
security and also with regard to stabilizing the Western Balkans.

Also
on Wednesday in Brussels, Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu had a meeting with
the US Secretary of state John Kerry. According to a communiqué issued by the
Romanian Foreign Ministry, Comanescu stated that the relation with the US was a
pillar of Romania’s foreign and security policy. In turn, Kerry stated that
Romania was a trustworthy ally and appreciated Bucharest’s contribution to the
fight against terrorism. Also, the US official accepted the invitation extended
by the Romanian Foreign Minister to pay a visit to Romania next year. The
meeting was held on the sidelines of the summit of the NATO foreign ministers.

The
unemployment rate in the Eurozone dropped to 10.7% in October this year from
11.5% in October 2014, according to data made public by Eurostat. In the
European Union, the unemployment rate stood at 9.3% in October 2015, down from
10.1% in the same month last year. Greece and Spain have reported the highest
unemployment rates in the EU, while Germany, the Czech Republic and Malta stand
best in this respect. Romania is below the EU average, with 6.8%. According to
Eurostat, around 22.5 million people were jobless in the EU in October 2015, of
whom 17.2 million in the Eurozone alone.

The
Legal Commission of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies endorsed on Wednesday the
request made by the Anticorruption Directorate to place under preventive
detention the liberal MPs Ioan Oltean and Catalin Teodorescu. The Commission’s
advisory endorsement precedes the voting in plenary Chamber of Deputies
session, due next week. The two are being prosecuted in a case in which damages
of over 23 million Euros were granted illegally. According to prosecutors,
Oltean allegedly got 600,000 Euros in bribe money from a business man to speed
up the payment of damages by the National Authority for Property Restitution.
Catalin Teodorescu, who back then was a member of the Central Commission for
the Calculation of Damages, part of the National Authority, approved the report
of evaluation of that property. The former head of the Authority, Crinuta
Dumitrean, was also arrested in the same case.

The
Bucharest Court of Appeal decided on Wednesday to place under preventive
detention an ethnic Hungarian Romanian citizen who had
planned to set off a bomb at the event held on Romania’s National Day on
December 1st in Targu Secuiesc, central Romania. According to
investigators, explosive materials and sophisticated military equipment were
found during the search at his place. He is a well-known member of an extremist
organization from neighboring Hungary.

31
people injured in the fire that broke out at the ‘Colectiv’ night club in
Bucharest on October 30th are still under treatment in various
hospitals in Bucharest. 6 of them are in a critical condition. According to the
Romanian Foreign Ministry, 30 patients are being treated in hospitals abroad.
The death toll of the fire stands at 60. The three owners of the club,
charged with manslaughter remain in temporary police custody, according to a
ruling on Wednesday by the Bucharest Tribunal.

The World Bank on Wednesday launched a
programme on secondary education in Romania, for which the financial
institution grants the Government a 200-million Euro loan. The Romanian
Education Ministry will implement the project until 2022, to benefit over one
million and a half Romanian pupils and students from over 1 thousand high
schools and 300 public universities in Romania. The project aims at improving
the Romanian students’ chances to successfully graduate from a higher-education
institution.