February 15, 2017 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 15.02.2017, 20:09

CETA The European
Parliament on Wednesday approved the comprehensive economic and trade agreement
between the EU and Canada also known as CETA. Under negotiation for several
years now the agreement provides for the removal of numerous import duties. The
agreement still needs the approval of at least 38 national and regional
Parliaments to take full force. Following the signing of the agreement, a visa
waiver for the Romanian citizens is due to partially come into effect in late
April. It will first apply to the Romanians who have been to Canada before and
got visas. As of December 1st all Romanians will be able to travel
to Canada visa-free. In 2015 trade exchanges between the EU and Canada stood at
more than 60 billion euros and sources. According to European Parliament
sources this exchange will continue to grow upon the signing of CETA.

NATO Neither Europe
nor North America can tackle the complex challenges they are facing in this
generation alone, NATO secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a joint
news conference with the US Defence Secretary James Mattis in Brussels on
Wednesday. The US official is for the first time meeting defence ministers from
the allied countries in his new capacity. James Mattis said the Alliance
remains a fundamental bedrock for the United States and the entire
Transatlantic community. He mentioned the fact that the Alliance is adjusting
to be able to cope with the new challenges. Romania is being represented in
Brussels by its new Defence Minister Gabriel Les. On the sidelines of this
conference with his NATO counterparts, the Romanian official is also attending
a session of the Global Coalition against Daesh staged upon the initiative of
the new US Defence Secretary, James Mattis.

DECREE The Romanian
Government’s emergency decree repealing the controversial amendments to the
criminal codes, which have caused a large-scale political crisis over the past
two weeks, is as of Wednesday on the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies. On
Tuesday the plenum of the Senate adopted the decree unanimously. In another
move, the Government headquarters have been picketed for two weeks now by numerous
protesters. Since the start of the crisis on January 31, hundreds of thousands
of Romanians from the country and abroad have called for the resignation of the
coalition government made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of
Liberals and Democrats, whom they accuse of having tried to amend the criminal
codes to exonerate from legal responsibility certain corrupt politicians and members
of the local and central administration. The Social Democrats denied the
accusations claiming that they only wanted to harmonize the legislation in the
field with rulings of the Constitutional Court. In this context, President
Klaus Iohannis initiated a referendum on the continuation of the
anti-corruption fight. But government supporters accuse the president of not
respecting his role of moderator and of having embraced the cause of the
anti-government protesters.

RETAIL The European
Commission on Wednesday sent letters of formal notice to Romania and Hungary
because their national regulations on retail of farm and food products run
against the EU laws. The present legislation forces big retailers in Romania to
buy at least 51 percent of food and agricultural products from local producers.
The Commission believes this measure could bear on the free movement of goods.
The European executive says the Romanian legislation forces retailers to
promote local products restricting their commercial decision on which products
should be placed on offer, and that may run counter some provisions in the
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The Romanian authorities have
two months to respond to the European Commission’s arguments.

CRASH 4 people, a Romanian citizen
included, were killed and 15 were wounded in a crash involving a Romanian bus
in Hungary on Wednesday. According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, 6 wounded
Romanian citizens have been transported to medical units in Szeged and Mako, in
southeastern Hungary. The pileup accident happened very close to the border
checkpoint of Nadlac, in western Romania. According to investigators, the
pileup was caused by the fog, which had cut visibility down to 50 meters.
Romania has deployed a couple of its emergency intervention units SMURD, after
the activation of the bilateral intervention plan.