July 7, 2016

Click here for a round-up of news from Romania

Bogdan Matei, 07.07.2016, 12:00

NATO SUMMIT-Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis is today travelling to Warsaw, to attend the NATO summit that starts on Friday. For two days, the NATO leaders will take key-decisions aimed at strengthening NATO’s defence and deterrence capacity, with focus on enhancing the allies’ solidarity and strengthening the Eastern flank. At the summit, Romania will get the development of the contingency plan, namely NATO’s reaction in case one of its members is attacked. A Romanian brigade will be turned into a multi-national force, made up of 3,000-5,000 soldiers, of which 1,000 are to be deployed from the other member states by rotation. Another decision will concern the components of the anti-missile defence shield in Deveselu, southern Romania, which is to be integrated into the NATO system. Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis has stated that Romania’s stand at the Warsaw summit is in favour of solidarity and cohesion within the Alliance. The President has given assurances that Romania is and shall remain a credible ally and a pillar of stability and security in the region.

VISAS-The Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has stated that progress has been made with regard to wavering visas for the Romanians who travel to Canada. He has stressed, though, that in the absence of a political decision in Ottawa, Romania, as a EU member state, could, just like Bulgaria, not ratify the EU-Canada Commercial Agreement. On Monday, the chief of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery, Dragos Tudorache, will hold talks in Brussels with the Canadian Immigration Minister John McCallum and with EC and Bulgarian representatives on the visa waiver issue. In April, Canada and the US got an additional three-month deadline to come in line with the EU policy regarding visa reciprocity, according to which the countries whose citizens do not need visas to travel must in turn allow the free circulation of all the EU citizens. Canada currently requires visas for the Romanian and Bulgarian citizens, and the US asks for visas from the citizens of five EU member countries, including Romania.

RESHUFFLE — The new ministers nominated on Tuesday by PM Dacian Cioloş, as part of the most extensive reshuffle of his technocratic cabinet will be sworn in today. Mircea Dumitru, the rector of the Bucharest University takes over the education portfolio, Sorin Buşe, a manager boasting an impressive experience in the car industry becomes the new transport minister and Maria Ligor, the incumbent ambassador to Canada takes the helm of the Department for the Relation with the Romanian diaspora. Interim communication minister will be Dragoş Tudorache.

RULING – Local elected officials having received suspended prison sentences will lose their seats, Romania’s Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday, following a notification filed by President Klaus Iohannis who believes that the law comes against core principles of the rule of law and hinders the fight against corruption. The Constitutional Court’s interim president, Valer Dorneanu, has explained that Parliament’s decision to keep in office the officials subject to suspended sentences was discriminatory and that the solution given by Parliament would have disregarded the lawmakers’ goal, namely to protect the integrity and responsibility of the local elected official position. Find out more about it, after the news.

LABOUR FORCE — Some 3.7 million citizens from Central and East European EU member states are working in Western Europe, and 40% of them come from Romania, Poland, Hungary, Croatia and Bulgaria- data made available by the Austrian Institute of International Economic Studies show. According to the same source, 15% of the Romanians and 6% of the Poles have jobs in western countries, and Brexit, obviously is a major concern to them. President Klaus Iohannis has recently given assurances that Romania will hold negotiations so as to defend the interest of Romania and of the Romanian citizens in Great Britain.

VISIT — Romanian PM, Dacian Cioloş, has announced that next week will go to Mongolia, to attend the EU-Asia Summit and to Vietnam, in an effort to identify an economic cooperation potential. The Romanian PM has also said that in Mongolia he will have talks on projects of cooperation between the EU and Asia, as that is a very dynamic continent from an economic standpoint. According to him, the EU is negotiating several free trade exchanges with Asia. Dacian Ciolos has also announced that he has decided to go to Vietnam to boost the bilateral relation with that country. He will be accompanied by a delegation of Romanian business people.

FOOTBALL – German football manager Christoph Daum has traveled to Bucharest, where he will reportedly be officially appointed Romania’s new football manager. 62-year old Daum is the first foreign manager to have been appointed at the helm of our national squad. Daum is in for Anghel Iordanescu, the Romanian manager who was at the helm of the national team at the ongoing EURO 2016 in France. We recall Romania was ousted as early as the group stage, following a 1-2 defeat by host country France, 1-all in the fixture against Switzerland and a nil-1 defeat from Albania. In Germany, Daum won the title in the Bundesliga and the Supercup with VfB Stuttgart in the early 1990s. Daum’s record also includes the title and the Super Cup in Turkey with Beshiktash Istanbul, as well as two consecutive titles in the same country, with Fenerbahce. Also, Daum won the Championship-Cup event in Austria, at the helm of Austria Vienna. Daum is a respected football manager but also a controversial public figure.

PARIS — Defending world champion Germany and the team of the EURO 2016 host country, France, are this evening playing in Marseille, the second semi-final of the European Football Championships in France.

(Translated by D. Vijeu)