June 25, 2018

Thousands of Romanians took to the streets on Sunday to call for the resignation of the Dancila Government / The EC is conduction a fresh CVM evaluation of the Romanian justice system

Newsroom, 25.06.2018, 13:38

NO-CONFIDENCE – Thousands of Romanians went to the streets on Sunday evening, calling for the resignation of the Government led by Viorica Dancila. They are worried that the current executive, formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, might adopt, under an emergency decree, the changes brought to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, which have been adopted recently. These changes are the object of the no-confidence motion filed by the National Liberal Party, which is being read in parliament today and will be voted on Wednesday. The right wing opposition blames the Government for having destroyed the economy and the justice system. Also today, the Romanian MPs are to debate a simple motion filed by the Save Romania Union, which calls for the resignation of the Transport Minister Lucian Sova. He is accused of incompetence and of having blocked funding for the building of motorways in Romania.

NATIONAL DEFENSE – The meeting of the Supreme Council of National Defense will be held on Wednesday, headed by the President Klaus Iohannis. The meetings agenda includes Romanias objectives for the NATO summit in Brussels next week and the Romanian Armed Forces that can be deployed for missions and operations abroad in 2019. A fresh NATO training mission in Iraq will be officially announced at the summit of the Alliance scheduled for July. Also, NATO wants to set up ground forces command units. Romania has already announced its intention to host such a command unit. Bucharests stand on the relation between the EU and NATO, a topic that will be approached at the summit, must also be established at the meeting of Romanias Supreme Council of National Defense.

FAC – The Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu is today attending the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg. The EU foreign ministries will have a joint working session with the defense ministries, to assess the progress in security and defence. Also, the ministers will discuss the consolidation of the relationship between NATO and the EU, in the presence of the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Also today, Romania and Bulgaria will give briefings on the stage and prospects of EU-supported regional cooperation initiatives in the Black Sea Area.

CVM – The European Commission is currently conducting a fresh evaluation under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. For three days, a Commission delegation will analyze the impact of the changes brought to the justice laws and the criminal codes on the Romanian justice system. The Justice Minister Tudorel Toader has stated that a document was drawn up, highlighting the progress made by Romania.

MOLDOVA – The Supreme Court of Justice of the Republic of Moldova (Romanias neighbor with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population) is today examining the appeal to the invalidation of the early elections for the office of mayor of Chisinau, issued by two lower courts. On June 3rd, the second round of mayoral elections was won by the representative of the pro-European opposition Andrei Nastase, who defeated the pro-Russia socialist Ion Ceban. The invalidation of the result of the election triggered large-scale protests across the country and reactions from the EU and the US, which have called for a transparent appeal procedure. In Bucharest, the Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu has warned that political tension might affect the republics stability, and the right-wing opposition has voiced support for Nastase. If Nastases win is not validated, Chisinau will have an interim mayor until the local elections due next year.

MIGRATION – The European mini-summit on migration ended on Sunday in Brussels without any concrete measures being adopted. The leaders of the 16 participant countries agreed over the need to curb illegal migration and protect the European frontiers, but there was no consensus as to how that would be achieved. The German Chancellor Angela Markel stated that, unless solutions were found at the level of the EU, bilateral agreements will be proposed, while the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte proposed the creation of international protection centers in the transit countries and sanctions against the EU countries that do not accept refuges. The Visegrad Group (made up of Hungary, Poland, the Check Republic and Slovakia) boycotted the meeting. New talks will be held at the European Council this week.

BACCALAUREATE – The high-school graduation examinations – the Baccalaureate – have started in Romania today. Some 137,000 students are participating, in 440 examination centers across the country. Today was the day for Romanian language and literature examination. On Tuesday, students belonging to the national ethnic minorities will sit for the examination in their mother tongues, Wednesday is the compulsory specialty examination, and on Thursday students will be tested into a matter of their own choice. For the first time, the oral examinations were taken during the school year. The first results are to be posted on July 4th, and the final ones on July 9th.

SCIENCE – Researchers from across the world are these days in Brasov, in central Romania, attending the International Nuclear Photonics Conference. Romania was chosen to host the second edition of this event, given that it is home to the most powerful laser in the world, which will be rendered operational next year. On Sunday, the participants discussed the applications of this technology, after they had visited the Magurele facility, near Bucharest. The first edition of the Conference was held in California in 2016.

TENNIS – The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep remains no.1 in the world, according to the WTA rankings published on Monday. To Halep, its the 34th week as world leader. Next on the podium there come Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and Garbine Muguruza of Spain. The top 100 includes another five Romanian tennis players: Mihaela Buzarnescu (28), Irina Begu (33), Sorana Cirstea (47), Monica Niculescu (59) and Ana Bogdan (63).

(translated by Mihaela Ignatescu)