February 17, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news.

Newsroom, 17.02.2020, 20:00

GOVERNMENT – The 16 ministers of the new Orban cabinet, which has the same structure and membership as that dismissed through a vote of no-confidence, are interviewed for three days, starting on Monday, by Parliaments specialist committees. The vote of investiture is scheduled for the 24th of February. Prime minister designate, the Liberal Ludovic Orban, has decided to maintain the same government make-up because he says he is satisfied with the activity of each minister. The Social Democrats, in opposition, say they are not going to vote for the candidates proposed for the new government. Moreover, they are considering boycotting Parliaments meeting for the investiture vote. The plan of the National Liberal Party is for two consecutive governments to be rejected, which would trigger the dissolution of Parliament and early elections. Ludovic Orban said previously that early elections could be held between the 15th and the 30th of June, at the same time as the local elections.

VISIT – The speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and interim president of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, is paying a 2-day visit to Brussels that started on Monday. He said that at Monday’s meeting with the vice-president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, and the president of the Party of European Socialists Sergei Stanishev, he clarified a few aspects from the past and that the two European officials assured him that they support the Social Democratic Party. Ciolacu said they also discussed about the new European Pact for the Environment, the future European budget, the allocations for Romania and the European minimum salary. The Romanian official also met with the president of the European Parliament, David Maria Sassoli, with whom he discussed about the European budget. Ciolacu had previously said that his party needs to resume dialogue and consolidate its relationship with the friends and partners from its European political family. In April last year, the Party of European Socialists froze ties with Romanias Social Democratic Party, now in opposition but still the biggest group in Parliament, over its attacks on the rule of law while in power.

EUROPEAN UNION – EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Monday to prepare Thursdays difficult special summit on the multiannual budget, where major differences are expected between the big contributors and the less developed states. After talks with the European leaders, the president of the European Council Charles Michel has proposed a national contribution to the budget to the amount of 1.07% of the GDP, but the rich countries refuse to allocate more than 1%. Romanias president Klaus Iohannis has recently promised to negotiate hard to maintain funding for his country at least at the current level, with respect to the cohesion and common agricultural policies, the main instruments to reduce development gaps. Also on Monday, EU foreign ministers decided to launch a new naval and air mission in the eastern Mediterranean to stop more arms reach warring factions in Libya, after Austria lifted its veto. The decision marked a breakthrough after weeks of fruitless negotiations and warnings by EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell that the bloc risked becoming irrelevant if it could not act, potentially leaving Libya’s fate to Turkey and Russia.

CORONAVIRUS – The Romanian citizen infected with coronavirus, from the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Japan is in good and stable condition, the interim health minister Victor Costache announced on Monday. The other 16 Romanians on board the vessel, who are not infected, feel good, the minister also said. The Romanian Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that starting February 19, when the quarantine ends, the Romanian passengers will be allowed to leave the cruise ship based on a medical certificate issued by the Japanese authorities, while the Romanians who are part of the crew could be quarantined for an additional 14 days. In China, the death toll is nearing 1,800.

TENNIS – The Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea (69 WTA) on Monday defeated Spains Carla Suarez Navarro (59 WTA) in three sets in the final qualifying round for the Premier tournament in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, worth 2.6 million dollars in prize money. Also on Monday, another Romanian player, Ana Bogdan (90 WTA) lost to Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus (48 WTA) in two sets. World no. 2 Simona Halep, who is seeded first in Dubai, plays straight into the last 16, where she faces the winner of the match between Alison Riske of the US and Ons Jabeur of Tunisia. Halep won the Dubai tournament in 2015. (Translated by E. Enache)