February 1, 2023

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 01.02.2023, 13:55

Parliament. The Romanian Senate and Chamber of Deputies are today holding the first parliamentary session this year. The agenda includes the most important bills with regard to the deadlines assumed under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The leaders of the main parties in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party, have announced, as legislative priorities, those on education and the reform of special pensions. The Liberals are also particularly interested in increasing the threshold from which pensions are taxed and a bill to merge the local elections with the parliamentary ones, in 2024. In May, according to the coalitions protocol, the rotation of premiers between the Liberals and the Social Democrats will take place. The Social Democrats have announced that they are working on a new government program, and the Social Democrat president, Marcel Ciolacu, who will take over the position of prime minister in this case, set forth the idea of ​​reducing labor taxation and overtaxing companies with very high incomes. From the opposition, the Save Romania Union has announced that it will initiate, on the first day of the parliamentary session, a new simple motion against the Minister of the Interior, Lucian Bode, against the background of accusations of plagiarism regarding his doctoral thesis.

Visit. The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, will pay an official visit to Baku, Azerbaijan, on February 2-3, at the invitation of his counterpart, Ilham Aliyev. The two presidents will open the Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council. The visit of the head of the Romanian state takes place in continuation of the very good talks held with the Azerbaijani president, in Bucharest, in December 2022, on the occasion of their participation in the signing ceremony of the Agreement between the Governments of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary regarding the Strategic Partnership in the field of green energy development and transport . In Baku, the state of implementation of regional interconnection projects such as the submarine electricity transmission cable will be assessed and the initiation of similar projects in the digital field will be addressed. Azerbaijan is the first country in the South Caucasus region with which Romania raised bilateral relations to the level of Strategic Partnership in 2009.

Corruption. The Bucharest Tribunal has rejected the National Anticorruption Directorates request for a 30 day custody for the Romarm director Gabriel Ţuţu and Alexandru Piţurcă, the son of the former coach of the Romanian national football team, Victor Piţurcă, in the case related to the purchase of non-compliant protective masks for the Ministry of Defense. The two will be placed under legal restrictions pending trial. Alexandru Piţurcă was detained for 24 hours on Tuesday, being accused of influence peddling, while Gabriel Ţuţu was also detained for a day. In the same case, Victor Piţurcă is also being investigated under legal restrictions for influence peddling. According to the Anticorruption Directorate, against the backdrop of the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, between March 2020 and September 2021, Gabriel Ţuţu, as general manager of Romarm, a state-owned company and the main supplier of defense technology, allegedly concluded with an association of companies, of which one was controlled by Alexandru Piţurcă, under disadvantageous conditions for the company he was running, two public procurement contracts for the purchase of non-compliant equipment for the production of protective masks. Gabriel Ţuţu allegedly received the bribe through an intermediary in the amount of 50,000 lei, the equivalent of 10 thousand euros.

Ukraine. The Russian invasion forces are making small progress on the front in eastern Ukraine – international news agencies report. Their main target remains the city of Bakhmut, which they have been trying to seize for months without success. Both Bakhmut and the neighboring villages of Kliškiivka and Kurdiumivka, located south of the city, came under new Russian fire. According to the Ukrainian military, though, the Russians allegedly got stuck near the town of Avdiivka, the second focal point of their attacks in the disputed Donetsk region. Troop movements are also registered in Lyman, a city recaptured by the Ukrainians in October. In an unusually detailed intelligence update, British Ministry of Defense experts, who are constantly monitoring the situation on the front, note that Russian forces have advanced several hundred meters across a river towards the town of Vuhledar, and recorded made small wins. Specialists say that Moscows troops would like to attract the Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut to Vuhledar.

Borders. The General Inspectorate of the Romanian Border Police informs that on Tuesday, 56,908 people, including 7,395 Ukrainian citizens, entered Romania through the border-crossing points. According to a press release, since February 10, 2022, two weeks before the Russian army invaded their country, 3,443,915 Ukrainian citizens have entered neighboring Romania. The majority have continued their way to countries in Western Europe, but around 100 thousand, according to the Bucharest authorities, chose to stay in Romania.

Strike. The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs Romanian citizens who are in, transiting or intending to travel to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland that the British Border Force has announced the organization of a strike on Wednesday and Thursday. According to the MFA, all international border crossing points (maritime and airports) in the United Kingdom will be affected, as well as border points in the north of the French Republic: Calais, Dunkirk and Coquelles. People who are going to travel from or to the United Kingdom, during the mentioned period, will face longer waiting times at the border control, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warns. The Radio Romania correspondent in London reports that, after the first 100 days of his mandate, the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is facing a drastic drop in popularity, against the background of union grievances related to salaries and the governments refusal to accept negotiations, against the background of unprecedented high levels of inflation. Moreover, political scandals abound in the ruling conservative party. (MI)