January 26, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 26.01.2020, 19:15

CEREMONY – On Monday, the Romanian Prime-Minister Ludovic Orban will attend in Poland the official ceremony marking 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, organized by the Warsaw authorities on the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Government, the ceremony, which will be held under the high patronage of the Polish president Andrzej Duda, will be attended by officials from many countries, Holocaust survivors and members of Jewish associations. The Romanian Government reconfirms its commitment to continuing the efforts to educate about Holocaust and to foster Holocaust commemoration, education and research. This week, Romanias president Klaus Iohannis has attended in Israel the Fifth World Holocaust Forum. Hes also had meetings with his Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlim, whom hes assured that Romania will continue to support Holocaust commemoration, to combat anti-Semitism, discrimination and any form of violence.

LAW – Law 192 of 2019, on amending and adding to normative documents in the field of public order and safety came into force on Sunday. According to the new law, police can enter somebodys household without the owner approval, provided they have information that somebody is in imminent danger at that location, a perpetrator or a terrorist suspect is hiding there, or in cases of domestic violence. The police can take immediate action against the perpetrators, by temporarily evicting them from the premises, even if they are the owners, or by issuing temporary protection orders. The refusal to show an ID will also be punished with a fine that now stands at some 300 Euro. The new law also provides for changes regarding the border police.

VISIT – The Romanian Defense Minister Nicolae Ciuca is to pay a formal visit to Portugal, on Monday and Tuesday, at the invitation of his counterpart Joao Gomes Cravinho. According to a press release, the main topics on the agenda of the talks between the two officials are cooperation on military education, bilateral and multinational military exercises and means of cooperation in the defense industry. In December 2019, the two countries signed the contract for the purchase of a new lot of five F-16 Fighting jets, which add to the 12 purchased between 2014-2017, under a program of equipping the Romanian army with multi-role planes.

JHA – At the informal meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Zagreb, the Romanian Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu supported the idea of an evaluation mechanism on justice and the rule of law for all member countries. He has stated there should be one standard for all and that the support for rendering the European Prosecutors Office operational will be a test for the real commitment of all the member states to the same integrity standards, with a view to protecting the European interests and fight corruption with European funds. At the informal meeting in Zagreb, the EU justice ministers discussed progress in terms of freedom, security and justice, judiciary training, and the importance of national and European networks.

TURKEY – Romanias president Klaus Iohannis has sent his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan a message of condolence for the victims of the earthquake that hit eastern Turkey on Friday. Romania will support Turkey to overcome this difficult moment, the message reads. The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu too has sent a letter of condolence to his counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. Dozens of people were killed and more than 1,600 injured in the earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale. In 1999, about 17,000 people died in a quake in the western city of Izmit, in the north-west, which had a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale.

VIRUS – The Romanian Foreign Ministry has informed the Romanian citizens who are in, are transiting or are about to travel to Hong Kong and Macao, China, that the local authorities have activated preparation and response plans for infectious diseases. A coronavirus has been infecting people in both regions. The virus has reached Europe, and several cases have been confirmed in France. The European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, has called a meeting on Monday, to examine together with the EU line representatives options to respond to the situation created by the spread of this new virus.

FILM – Romanian director Radu Ciorniciucs debut film, “My Home”, premiered on Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival, the most important independent film festival in the US. “My Home” is the first Romanian documentary taking part in the festivals contest and will compete against another 11 documentaries, in the World Cinema Documentary category. The film tells the story of a family that for 20 years lived in the Vacaresti Delta, in Bucharest, until the place got the status of protected area and became the first natural urban park in Romania. Another Romanian film, “Colectiv”, by Alexander Nanau, will be presented in the Spotlight section. Its a documentary about the tragedy at the Colectiv club in Bucharest, where 64 young people died in a fire.