June 27, 2014 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news.
România Internațional, 27.06.2014, 12:02
The Bucharest Court of Appeal on Friday ruled that Mircea Basescu, President Traian Basescu’s brother, should remain in police custody. Mircea Basescu has been placed under a 30-day pre-emptive arrest as part of an investigation, in which he is accused of receiving bribe of some 250,000 euros in exchange for using his influence to obtain a milder sentence for a well-known crime boss called Sandu Anghel. Anghel is currently serving time for attempted murder. Mircea Basescu had appealed the 30-day pre-emptive arrest decision, but the Court decided on Friday that he should remain in custody.
The Republic of Moldova and Georgia signed on Friday in Brussels the Association and Free Trade Agreements with the European Union. Also, Ukraine signed the economic chapters of the agreement. The European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barosso called the signing of the Association Agreement with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova historic. He has warned, however, that the success of these agreements further depend on the three former Soviet states and on the reforms they will conduct to guarantee a genuine and sustainable transformation. In Chisinau, the pro-Western Prime Minister Iurie Leanca has said he has prepared the institutions for an efficient implementation of the association agreement, which he sees as an important stage of in his country’s EU integration process.
Those about 1.500 delegates attending the National Liberal Party congress on Friday, voted, by a large margin, the party’s new statute, which changes the manner in which party leaders are elected. The new party leaders will be elected on Saturday. The favourite for the position of head of the party is the Sibiu mayor Klaus Iohannis. The Liberals will also decide if they make an alliance with the Liberal Democratic Party for the upcoming presidential elections.
Seeded third in the women’s singles, WTA 3rd ranked Simona Halep has already secured qualification to the third round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, after defeating Ukrainian Lesia Turenko on Friday, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Halep will next play against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
