June 6, 2014 UPDATE
For a roundup of domestic and international news, click here.
Bogdan Matei, 06.06.2014, 12:05
ABSORPTION OF EU FUNDS — The European Commission doesn’t want the Strategic Partnership with Romania to be politicised, spokesperson of the EU Commissioner for Regional Development Johannes Hahn said on Friday in Brussels. The EU official denied there were any deficiencies, lack of transparency or alleged frauds in Romania’s absorption of EU funds, as claim certain online publications in Bucharest. Shirin Wheeler said the Government had a flexible and transparent dialogue with the Commission, while Romanian authorities have responded positively to all recommendations of European officials. Evidence of that is the fact that none of Romania’s programmes is suspended at present. According to the latest European Commission figures, Romania’s rate of absorption went beyond 45%, Radio Romania’s correspondent in Brussels reports.
ARRESTS– The Bucharest Court of Appeal on Friday decided to place businessman Dan Adamescu under pre-emptive arrest for 30 days for bribe giving. The decision is not final and can be challenged. Seen as the second richest Romanian in the country, Adamescu is accused of having bribed two judges in exchange for favourable rulings in the cases of insolvency of companies he owns shares in. In another development, the vice-president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority and a director with ENEL, an important electricity supplier, have been detained for bribe giving and influence peddling. In other court cases, the head of the infrastructure and public services department of the Bucharest City Hall was arrested for abuse of office, forgery of deeds and influence peddling. Also, a former director of the Bucharest Public Transport Utility was arrested for abuse of office in a court case causing the state a prejudice of some 820,000 euros.
D-DAY 70th ANNIVERSARY-19 of the most important world leaders, among whom US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Queen Elisabeth II of Great Britain and Russian President Vladimir Putin, celebrated on Friday, on the French beaches of Normandy, 70 years since the decisive moment of victory over Nazi Germany, in WW II. The ceremonies were however overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis and the tense relations with Russia, following Crimea’s annexation. The Allies’ Landing, also known in history as D-Day, proved a vital move for the liberation of France, the annihilation of Germany’s troops in Western Europe and the end of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
MEETING — Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday met in Paris with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko on the sideline of the celebration of 70 years since the landing of Allied forces in Normandy. According to sources close to president Francois Hollande, the meeting lasted 15 minutes and resulted in some progress with a view to solving the crisis in Ukraine. Putin also had an informal meeting with his US counterpart Barack Obama. On the ground, pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine are allegedly controlling some 200 km of the Ukrainian border with Russia. The Ukrainian army is deployed in what it has termed an anti-terrorist military operation in southern Ukraine, to appease the separatists rebellion. Violence has escalated in Donetsk and Luhansk, where dozens were killed and scores of civilians were wounded in clashes between Ukrainian military and pro-Russian rebels.
ECONOMY– A joint mission of the IMF, the European Commission and the World Bank is currently in Bucharest, until June the 16th, on a third assessment of the precautionary stand-by agreement signed with Romania last autumn. On Friday, representatives of the international lenders had talks at the Health Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the National Bank of Romania. The talks were mainly aimed at finding solutions to introduce a 5% reduction in employer social security contributions, as of July the 1st. Following this week’s talks with representatives of the international lenders, the Romanian government has approved a series of measures meant to render the railway sector more efficient. These measures are part of Romania’s general transport master-plan.
THEATRE– The 21st edition of the International Theatre Festival, the largest event of its kind in Romania, opens its doors in the central Romanian town of Sibiu. For ten days, hundreds of events, put up by 2,500 actors, artists and directors from 70 countries will turn Sibiu into a huge stage. The highlights of the festival will include theatre shows, dance, music, street performances, circus shows, exhibitions, reading sessions and conferences. Theatre critics rank Sibfest the 3rd largest festival of its kind in the world, after those in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Avignon in France.
TENNIS– Romanian tennis player Simona Halep will go up one position in WTA standings on Monday, being ranked 3rd in the world, irrespective of the result she will have scored in Saturday’s Roland Garros final against Russian Maria Sharapova. Halep has reached the finals of the second largest Grand Slam tournament of the year after defeating German Andrea Petkovic in two sets. It is for the first time that Halep, who has been declared the woman tennis player with the greatest ascension in 2013, qualifies for a Grand Slam final. The last woman tennis player from Romania to play in a Grand Slam final was Virginia Ruzici, back in 1980, also at the Roland Garros, a tournament that she had won years before, in 1978.
