January 22, 2016

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 22.01.2016, 12:01

In Romania, the
extremely cold weather of the past few days has led to record levels of gas and
electricity consumption. The consumption of natural gas went up to over 60
million cubic meters per day, 20% more than on a regular winter day. The
leadership of Transgaz, which is the national gas carrier, has given
assurances, though, that there is enough gas to avoid starting the emergency
procedures. As regards electricity, the consumption has these days reached over
9,400 megawatts. The normal consumption on a regular winter day is 9,000 megawatts. To cover the high demand,
additional units have been rendered operational, which produce electricity from
coal and fuel oil.

According to Bloomberg
Businessweek, Romanian officials are afraid they might be accused of corruption
and therefore avoid signing loan agreements worth billions of Euros with the
EU. The publication recalls that the Romanian National Anti-corruption
Directorate is investigating over 10,000 cases and hundreds of public servants
have been charged with corruption, following a campaign supported by the chief
prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi, who was appointed head of the Directorate in
2013. Under the operations conducted by the Directorate, many politicians have
been charged with corruption, such as the former mayor of Bucharest, Sorin
Oprescu or Finance Minister Darius Valcov. The Representative in Romania of the
European Investment Bank, Dietmar Dumlich has stated, quoted by Bloomberg, that the
institution has endorsed 1.7 billion euro worth of credits for infrastructure
projects, but cannot find anybody to sign the documents.

The President of the Republic
of Moldova, Nicolae Timofti, had a phone conversation with Romania’s president
Klaus Iohannis on Thursday night. The two officials discussed the current
social – political situation in Chisinau, as well as the relations between the
two countries, the Moldovan presidency announced in a communique. Klaus
Iohannis stressed the fact that Moldova’s having a new sworn-in government is a step forward
towards overcoming the political crisis and implementing the Association
Agreement with the EU. Also, the two officials reaffirmed the two countries’
willingness to cooperate at all levels: political, economic and social. Also on
Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution saluting the Chisinau
government, which took office after a long period of political deadlock. On
Wednesday, the legislative endorsed the swearing in of the pro-West coalition
government, headed by Pavel Filip. Discontent with the corruption and lack of
effectiveness of the political class, thousand of protesters went to Parliament
right after the vote, to call for early elections.

The Group of
States Against Corruption – GRECO – has today made public the report on the
fourth evaluation round on transparency
of the legislative process in Romania. The recommendations made by GRECO
include the development of a code of conduct for MPs and completing the code of
ethical conduct for judges and prosecutors, so that they can provide adequate
guidance in particular with regard to conflicts of interest. Also, GRECO
recommends that the judiciary in Romania should improve its response to the
integrity risks facing judges and prosecutors.

At least 21
people, including 8 children, died this morning after their boats sank off the
Greek islands, with dozens of migrants reported missing, according to
information provided by the Greek coast guard and taken over by FP. On
Thursday, at least 12 immigrants, also including children, drowned in Turkey’s
territorial waters, as the boat on board of which they were trying to reach the
Greek coast sunk. According to estimates by the International Organization for
Migration, between the 1st and the 18 of January, 77 people coming from the
Turkish coast, trying to reach western Europe, died while attempting to cross the sea.
According to the same organization, over 31,000 people have arrived to the
Greek islands since the beginning of the year, which means 21 times more than
in January 2015. Last year, over one million refugees and immigrants reached
Europe, most of them crossing the Mediterranean. 3,700 people died trying to
reach the continent.

At the year’s
first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, the pair made of the Romanian
Florin Mergea and the Indian Rohan Bopanna has today qualified to the
tournament’s round of 16. 4th-seed Mergea and Bopanna have
outclassed the all-Czech pair made of Lukas Dlouhy si
Jiri Vesely, 6-3, 6-2. The top-seed pair made of the Romanian Horia
Tecau and the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer on Saturday will be facing the German -
Austrian pair made of Benjamin Becker and Dominic Thiem. In the women’s
singles, all five Romanian tennis players who have played their fixtures in the
main draw have been edged out of the Australian Open.