July 9, 2019

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 09.07.2019, 14:36

GRECO Romania has made little progress to put in place measures to
prevent corruption among parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors and to
address the concerns raised by its controversial judicial reform says the
Council of Europe’s anti-corruption institution GRECO in two reports that it
has published today. GRECO is deeply concerned
by the fact that the authorities have disregarded the recommendation to abandon
the setting-up of the section for the investigation of the offences in the
judiciary. On the other hand GRECO hails the announcement made by Prime
Minister Dancila regarding the intention to give up the controversial justice
reforms. GRECO decides to continue to evaluate Romania’s complying with the
recommendations included in the two reports and has called on the authorities
to report back on the progress achieved by June 30th 2020.

PSD
Leaders of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the main component of the ruling
coalition in Bucharest have today begun talks about government reshuffle. These
talks might take several weeks, during which the activity of ministries is to
be assessed – the party’s new leader, Viorica Dancila, has announced. After the
assessment, the Social Democrats will decide which ministers should be
replaced. According to the Prime Minister, the PSD candidate to the
presidential election this autumn will be established based on a poll in the
first half of August. We recall that Prime Minister Dancila went to the helm of
the party after the coalition’s strongman Liviu Dragnea had been arrested on
corruption charges. We recall that the PSD also lost the European Parliament
election to the opposition National Liberal Party while its partner ALDE failed
to clear the 5% threshold.

TENNIS Romanian
tennis player Simona Halep, currently ranking 7th in the world standings, will
be up against Chinese Zhang Shuai in the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon
tournament, the third Grand Slam competition of the year. On Monday, Halep
outperformed the tournamnet’s revelation, 15-year-old US challenger Cori Gauff.
Halep’s best Wimbeldon performance was in 2014, when she made it to the
semifinals. Also today, Romanians Irina Begu and Monica Niculescu are playing
against Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic. In
the men’s double, Horia Tecau of Romania and his Dutch partner Jean-Julien
Rojer will be taking on Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Columbia in
the quarter finals. We recall that Tecau and Rojer won the tournament in 2015.

FOOTBALL Romania’s football champions, CFR Cluj will today be playing FC
Astana of Kazakhstan in an away game counting towards the first preliminary round
of the Champions League. On Thursday in the first preliminary round of the
Europa League, FCSB, formerly known as Steaua Bucharest, will be up against
Milsami Orhei of the neighboring Republic of Moldova in a home match, while CSU
Craiova will be playing in an away fixture FK Sabail of Azerbaijan. The return
games are due next week. Romanian Cup holder, Viitorul Constanta, will be
playing directly in the Europa League’s second preliminary round against
Belgian side FC Anvers, coached by former Romanian international Ladislau
Boloni.

PROSECUTOR The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet,
Romanian-speaking country might today launch procedures to revoke its chief
prosecutor Eduard Harujen, accused of having carried out the political orders
of the former government. Appointed in 2006, the former chief prosecutor
prosecuted political files upon requests coming from the country’s former
ruling Democratic Party headed by the controversial tycoon Vladimir Plahotniuc.
The country’s new Prime Minister Maia Sandu has announced she would like a
European Prosecutor to take over Harujen’s job adding that she has conveyed an
invitation in this respect to the former head of Romania’s Anti-corruption
Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi. However, the country’s pro-Russia president
Socialist Igor Dodon is not comfortable with the idea of having a European
prosecutor in Chisinau. We recall that Kovesi is presently running against
French Jean-Francoise Bohnert for the position of chief of the future European
Prosecutor’s Office, which might become operational next year.

PROPOSAL Romania’s Prime Minister Viorica Dancila has proposed the former
MEP Social-Democrat Ioan Mircea Pascu for the position of interim commissioner
for regional policies to replace Corina Cretu, who was elected MEP on May 26th.
The move comes after the EU Council has rejected a proposal by the head of the EU
Executive Jean Claude Juncker that other commissioners should take over positions
left vacant after the elections for the next four months that remained from the
mandate of the present commissioners. The main argument invoked by the European
Commission was that referring to budget expenses. ‘We regret the Council’s
decision not to accept the proposal, but the responsibility on this is now
entirely with the Council’, a spokesperson for the Executive told our
correspondent in Brussels. A veteran leftist politician who got involved in the
country’s political life shortly after the anti-communist revolution of 1989,
Pascu, 70, was Defence Minister in 2004 the year of Romania’s entry into NATO
and an MEP when the country joined the European Union in 2007.

(translated by bill)