December 3, 2015 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 03.12.2015, 12:19

9 foreign citizens suspected of links with terrorism have been declared undesirable and ousted from the Romanian territory in 2015 upon the proposal of the Romanian Intelligence Service- SRI, the institutions spokesperson announced. Another 246 people, who were suspected of posing terrorist risk, have been denied entry to Romania in 2015. These foreign citizens came from Iraq, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia and Syria and almost 70% of them are linked to or have undertaken activities to support the terrorist organization the Islamic State. The Romanian Intelligence Service says that, in the current security context in Europe, the national terror threat level remains at “precautionary-blue. SRI cooperates both with national partners and partner services in order to contribute to the effort made at national and international level to defend democratic values.

The Social Democrat senator, Dan Sova, was arrested on Thursday by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate- DNA for 24 hours in a case in which he is accused of influence peddling related to a legal counseling contract concluded with the Govora central heating power plant. The measure was taken shortly after the Romanian Senate approved the National Anti-Corruption Directorates request to take Dan Sova into temporary custody. The Senate had rejected a previous request by the DNA in the case of the energy compounds of Rovinari and Turceni in which the senator was indicted on charges of corruption. In another development, the MPs in Parliaments Legal Committee on Wednesday approved the DNAs requests for taking Liberal MPs Ioan Oltean and Catalin Teodorescu into temporary custody. The two are accused of corruption. The final decision in their case will be made in the plenum of the Chamber of Deputies next week.

The Romanian Foreign Minister, Lazar Comanescu, is participating for two days, starting on Thursday, in the 22nd OSCE Ministerial Council meeting. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, Romania will continue to promote the full-fledged implementation of the principles and commitments made in all three Dimensions of the OSCE – political and military, economy and environment and human rights. Also Romania supports the effort assumed by the Organization in the context of the Ukrainian conflict and also in the effort to solve prolonged conflicts. On the sidelines of the Ministerial Council meeting the Romanian foreign minister met Thursday with his counterparts from Ukraine and Norway.

The 2016 draft budget was high on the agenda of the Romanian governments meeting held on Thursday. The finance minister, Anca Dragu, announced the bill would be posted by the end of the week on the ministrys website and then it would go on public debate. She pointed out that in drafting the budget they focused on ensuring fiscal stability and predictability, in order to boost the business environment and stimulate private investments, and also on increasing the efficiency of budget resources. The 2016 budget was drafted based on a deficit of 2.8% of the GDP and on an economic growth of 4.1%. Previously, the PM Dacian Ciolos said that the adjustment of pensions by 5% and the 10% rise in salaries for all public sector employees are included in the draft budget. The main fiscal measures to come into force next year refer to reducing the standard VAT quota from 24% to 20% and to diminishing the tax on dividends from 16% to 5%.

The volume of retail trade in Romania increased by 12.1% in October compared with the same period of 2014, this being the most significant increase reported in the EU, show the data made public on Thursday by Eurostat. In the EU, retail trade rose by 3.1% in October and in the euro zone the increase was of 2.5%. Romania is followed by Lithuania with 6.6% and Estonia with 6.5%. Drops in retail were reported in Luxembourg (minus 8.5%), Bulgaria, Belgium and Finland. As compared to the previous month, retail trade was stable in the EU and dropped by 0.1% in the euro zone. The highest increases were reported in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Portugal while the most significant decreases were in Slovenia, Ireland, Austria and Great Britain.

The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis rejected the pardon requests made by the former minister of youth and sports Monica Iacob-Ridzi and by the former director of the Institute of Food Research, Gheorghe Mencinicopschi, the presidential administration announced on Thursday. In February Monica Iacob-Ridzi was sentenced to 5 – year- imprisonment for abuse of office in relation to the organization of Youth Day in 2009. Gheorghe Mencinicopschi was sentenced in August 2014 to 8 years in prison for the fraudulent privatization of the institution he headed.

All the operational programs for member states for the period 2014- 2020 have been adopted, said Thursday the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu. She says that Romania has been allotted for this period 22.4 billion euros. The European Commissioner said she held talks with the current government officials in Bucharest in order to minimize efforts to finalize the projects for the period 2007-2013. Commissioner Cretu mentioned that an EC team is now in Bucharest working with the Romanian authorities on the matter.

14 people were killed and 21 were wounded on Wednesday in a shootout in the American city of San Bernardino (California), the local police chief announced on Thursday. He said the causes of the tragedy are unknown. The alleged attackers, a man and a woman were killed by the police after they opened fire on a social services center.