July 20, 2016

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 20.07.2016, 12:00

BUCHAREST — Turkey is a key partner for Romania and the European Union and stability is needed in that country, Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has today stated. Ciolos went on to say it was crucial that, in the aftermath of the failed coup plot, Turkey should yet again comply with the constitutional order, the rule of law and observing human rights. These are values we all share across the European Union and we firmly believe Turkey shares such values as well, given the relations it has with the European Union, Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos also stated.

BUCHAREST – The Healthcare Ministry in Bucharest has today confirmed the second Zika infection in a Romanian residing abroad. The person infected is a 10-year-old child living in the French Guyana who came on a visit to Romania on July 12th. The first case was a woman who came back from a trip in Martinique early this month. Discovered in Uganda back in 1947 the virus causes an infectious disease called the Zika fever and is transmitted by an infected mosquito or through sexual intercourse. The virus is not airborne and cannot be taken through physical contact. Experts believe that neurological complications and congenital malformations caused by the virus can be present in newly born babies as well. No vaccine has been discovered for Zika yet, an illness affecting over 15 countries in Latin America and the Antilles.

WASHINGTON — Billionaire Donald Trump has been designated the Republicans’ candidate for the presidential election in the US, scheduled on November 8. According to AFP, Trump would officially accept his candidacy Thursday, in the end of the Republicans’ Convention staged in Cleveland. Democrat Hillary Clinton will most likely be Trump’s challenger for the White House. The Democrats’ camp is to officially designate their candidate next week at their Philadelphia convention.

PARIS – French National Assembly last night has green-lighted a six-month extension, until the end of January 2017, of the emergency state across the country. The decision has been taken six days after the attack in Nice. The Government proposition is to be debated upon in Senate, today. The state of emergency mainly facilitating search operations, has been instated in the wake of the Jihadi attacks in Paris, perpetrated in November last year. 84 people, a Romanian included, lost their lives, and over 200 people were injured in the Nice attack. As many as four Romanians sustained injuries in the attack, among whom two people, the wife and the son of the deceased, are in a serious yet stable condition.

BUCHAREST – Prosecutors with Romania’s General Prosecutor’s Office have established that Hexi Pharma’s owner Dan Condrea has committed suicide and have closed the file over his death. Condrea’s death occurred amid the largest scandal in the Romanian healthcare system; we recall that his company had sold diluted disinfectants to hospitals all over Romania. In another move, Romania’s General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar has recently said that in the Hexi Pharma file over 200 hospitals have joined proceedings as civil parties, while the total prejudice stood at 70 million lei.

BUCHAREST — Romania’s Constitutional Court is today holding a debate on the official notification the Government submitted as regards the special pensions bill for local authorities. Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has been adamant in stating the law affects the state budget, since for their most part local budgets receive funding from the state budget. The negative impact on the state budget stands at around 90 million Euros per year, Ciolos went on to say. The Government has also contested that the aforementioned pension bill, stipulating special pensions for mayors, deputy mayors, county council presidents and vice presidents, is to take effect retroactively. The law, due to take effect as of January 2017, among other things, stipulates, that pension money would be earmarked from local budgets and that no special pensions would be granted to former local officials who received final sentences for graft accusations during their term in office. Also today, Romania’s Constitutional Court discusses a legislative proposition targeting the change, in the Constitution, of the notion of family. In May an NGO submitted with the Senate a proposition stipulating the family was based on the marriage between a man and a woman. Three million people signed the petition, which was aimed at hampering same-sex marriage.

WASHINGTON — Romanian Defense Minister Mihnea Motoc as of today is in Washington at the meeting of the contributing countries of the US-led Global Anti –ISIS Coalition. High on the talks’ agenda are issues targeting the stage of the campaign against terrorist threats which affects security in the extend region of the Middle East and Northern Africa as well as security at international level. Today the meeting is held, bringing together defense ministers of the coalition’s contributing countries, while on Thursday a joint session will be held, of Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministers of the same countries.

ANKARA — Turkey’s Higher Education Council has banned all academic staff from travelling abroad until further notification, in the wake of the recent failed coup plot. The decision has been taken one day after the Council made redundant 1,577 university professors. In turn, the Education Ministry has withdrawn the teaching licence of 21 thousand teachers from private institutions. In the last days, around 30 thousand people, among whom military, policemen, judges, public sector workers have been arrested or made redundant. Furthermore, a string of media companies has been closed down. Following the failed coup plot, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched a campaign against the supporters of his opponent, Muslim cleric Fehtullah Gullen, a resident of the United States. Gullen has been facing accusations of being behind the opposition in Turkey. Also, Gullen has been suspected of having masterminded the coup plot in Turkey. However, Fehtullah Gulen has denied any involvement in the coup, accusing Erdogan of using the plot as a pretext for consolidating his power.

BUCHAREST — Romania’s National anti-Corruption Agency has today announced deputies Madalin Voicu and Nicolae Paun are being investigated in a file targeting the embezzlement of European funds earmarked for the Rroma population’s social integration. Social Democrat MP Madalin Voicu and Rroma minority representative in Parliament Paun are facing accusations of having put together a plan to embezzle more than six million euro, pretending they would help thousands of Rroma people to find a job or become entrepreneurs, over 2010-2015. Other counts targeting Voicu and Paun have to do with money laundering, influence peddling and forgery in official statements.