February 10, 2016 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 10.02.2016, 12:20
VISIT On
Wednesday, Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis, started a working visit to the
German state of Bavaria and will attend the Security Conference in Munich, due
between February 12 and 14. On Thursday, the Romanian President will meet with
the President of the Bavarian State Parliament, Barbara Stamm and on Friday
with the Minister – President of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer. On Saturday, Klaus
Iohannis will be among the key speakers at the Security Conference in Munich,
in the panel devoted to the future of the North Atlantic Alliance. Some of the
focal points of the conference will be the stand on Russia, the refugee crisis,
the future of the North Atlantic Alliance, terrorism, the situation in Syria,
Ukraine and Africa, as well as climate change. Attending the conference will be
heads of state and government, European commissioners and ministers.
ELECTIONS
Local elections in Romania will be held on the 5th of June,
and the election campaign will be run between May 6th – June 4th
the Romanian Government decided on Wednesday. The budget earmarked for this
summer’s local elections stands at 350 million lei, the equivalent of some 75
million Euros. The local elections will be followed by the parliamentary ones,
in autumn. Also on Wednesday, the executive approved a long term strategy for
combating poverty. According to the PM Dacian Ciolos, there are many Romanians
who live in poverty, and 1.7 million of them are children. The prime minister
has proposed a plan of measures using funds from the state budget and European funds to help poor people. The
money will be spent on learning materials, clothes and vitamins for pre-school
children, on ensuring an identity for all children, vaccines and financial
support to avoid school drop out, as well as
and social care and professional integration programs.
NATO Strengthening security on NATO’s eastern
flank was high on the agenda of talks held in Brussels on Wednesday between the
Romanian Defense Minister Mihnea Motoc and Philip Breedlove, commander of the
Allied Command Operations in Europe. On the occasion, Motoc presented Romania’s
defense objectives and gave assurance of this country’s determination and
capacity to fulfill its obligations as a member state and to thus help achieve
NATO’s objectives and missions. The agenda of talks also included NATO’s
priorities in the run up to the summit in Warsaw. The meeting between the two
officials was held on the sidelines of the NATO Defense Ministers’ summit.
MOLDOVA Nicolae Timofti, the President of
the Republic of Moldova, the former Soviet country with a predominantly
Romanian-speaking population, will pay a formal visit to Romania on February
16-17, the Moldovan Presidency announced on Wednesday. He will hold meetings
with his counterpart Klaus Iohannis, PM Dacian Ciolos, Senate Speaker Calin
Popescu Tariceanu and other officials in Bucharest. The agenda of talks
includes topics such as bilateral relations, Moldova’s European agenda and the
economic, political and social cooperation between the two countries. Also,
president Timofti will hand in awards to President Klaus Iohannis, to the head
of the Emergency Situations Department of the Internal Affairs Ministry, State
Secretary Raed Arafat, and the famous Romanian actor Florin Piersic, who has
recently turned 80.
ANTI-CORRUPTION The
National Anti-corruption Directorate has called for the preventive detention of
MPs Madalin Voicu, member of the Social Democratic Party, and Nicolae Paun,
representative in the Romanian Parliament of the Roma community, accused of
misuse of European funds for projects targeting ethnic Roma. The alleged acts
of corruption were committed between 2010 – 2015 and caused millions of Euros
worth’ of damage to the state. Voicu is accused of office peddling, forgery and
money laundering, all aggravated, and Paun of forgery, changing the destination
of European funds without observing the
legal provisions in force and carrying out financial operations incompatible
with his position. Judiciary sources have announced that also prosecuted in the
case are the President of the National Fiscal Administration Agency (ANAF ) , Gelu Stefan Diaconu, and the vice-President of the same
institution, Mihai Gogancea Vatasoiu. The Romanian Finance Minister Anca Dragu
has called for the resignation of the two ANAF heads. She has stated that the
Agency is one of the most important institutions in Romania, and its leadership
must be above any suspicion.
SENTENCE The former head
warden of the Penitentiary in Ramnicu – Sarat, south-eastern Romania, Alexandru
Visinescu was taken to prison on Wednesday, just a few hours after he received
a final 20 year sentence from the High Court of Cassation and Justice for
crimes against humanity. According to the prosecutors, between 1956 – 1963,
when Visinescu was head of the penitentiary, the political prisoners, who
opposed the communist regime, were subjected to abominable treatment, meant to
destroy them physically. The detainees would thus die following a slow but
effective process of physical and psychological torture.
ECONOMY The Romanian authorities intend to ask the European Investment Bank,
EIB, to get involved in developing projects under public-private partnerships.
The issue was approached on Tuesday in Bucharest by the visiting EIB President
Werner Hoyer, during talks with Romania’s President, Klaus Iohannis and Prime
Minister, Dacian Ciolos. The president of the European Investment Bank is
paying this visit against the backdrop
of the constant support granted by the financial institution he runs, to Romania.
Last year, the loans granted by EIB to Romania amounted to 228 million Euro. In
the same line, two loans worth 1.3 billion Euro, co-financing EU grants, are at
an advanced state of preparation. Over the past 25 years, Romania benefited
from over 20 billion Euro worth of long term investments from the European
Investment Bank, which were instrumental to creating new jobs, consolidating
economic growth and improving the Romanians’ living standards.
