March 1, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 01.03.2023, 20:08

Visit. The Romanian
Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciuca, assured his Moldovan counterpart Dorin Recean of
his support for respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of his (predominantly
Romanian-speaking) country within its internationally recognized borders. We
are witnessing more and more attempts to destabilize the Republic of Moldova,
to artificially create tensions and hostile narratives, built on the
intentional propagation of false information, Nicolae Ciucă said. In turn, Dorin Recean stated that Bucharest
is Chisinau’s most important partner. Bucharest helped us enormously in
overcoming the energy crisis. Bucharest remains our advocate in all European
institutions, so that we can accelerate the European course, added the
Moldovan Prime Minister. He was also received by the president Klaus Iohannis
with whom he reviewed the implementation status of priority objectives in the
fields of energy, agriculture, transport and interconnectivity, health,
education and information society. Iohannis reiterated Romania’s firm support
in managing security challenges, as well as economic imbalances, caused in the
Republic of Moldova by the conflict in Ukraine. It is the first official trip
abroad of Dorin Recean since taking over the term of head of government in Chisinau.
The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, also visited Bucharest
last week.

Seismic risk. Romania
is a country at seismic risk, and for this reason the responsibility of
construction companies regarding the resistance structure of the buildings they
make will have to be regulated very clearly, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă
said on Wednesday. The government has developed a bill that will be sent to Parliament
for debate and approval, which provides for the ban on leasing apartments in
buildings that are part of the first category of seismic risk. The document
also sets deadlines for the rapid visual assessment of schools and hospitals, as
a priority, followed by the assessment other state buildings and apartment
blocks. The executive also adopted an emergency ordinance on the Safe
and healthy schools program, which proposes a simplified procedure for the
introduction of schools that are part of the first category of seismic risk
into the investment program. The list will be drawn up by the Ministry of
Education and will be sent to the Ministry of Regional Development, and the beneficiaries
of the program will be the local public administrations. Also, Wednesday, at
the beginning of the Government meeting, the first honorary government adviser
in Romania, but also in the world, was presented, which is a structure
exclusively based on artificial intelligence and which will receive proposals
and observations from citizens, will synthesize and send them to the competent
state institutions.

Accident. The Romanian
Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciucă, sent a message of support for the Greek people
and the authorities in Athens, after the tragic railway accident last night.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest has announced that no requests for
assistance have been received so far from Romanian citizens, in the context of
the accident in which at least 36 people died and over 80 were injured,
following the collision of a passenger train with a cargo one. According to
local media, it is the worst railway accident in Greece. The train, with 350
passengers, was going from Athens to Thessaloniki. Several passengers were
thrown out of the windows due to the impact. The Minister of Transport, Kostas
Karamanlis, resigned, and a station master was arrested.

NATO. The Parliament
of Helsinki adopted on Wednesday the draft law that paves the way for Finland’s
accession to the North Atlantic Alliance, Reuters reports. Both Finland and
Sweden are preparing to become NATO members and have officially applied for
membership in May 2022, ending decades of neutrality. Recently, a group of
ambassadors from NATO member countries, including that of Romania, Dan
Neculăescu, paid a working visit to Finland, in the context of this country’s
aspirations to join the North Atlantic Alliance. At the Madrid Summit in June
2022, the leaders of the NATO member countries took the decision to invite
Sweden and Finland to join the Alliance. The accession protocols were signed by
the 30 member states, of which 28 ratified them. Only Turkey and Hungary have
not yet ratified the documents.

Trafficking. 47 people were preventively arrested on Wednesday in Romania, and arrest warrants were issued for 18 in absentia, for migrant trafficking. Prosecutors with the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism in Romania (DIICOT) found 165 migrants hiding in the almost one hundred searches made in several counties and in the capital. Cars, money, ball guns, mobile phones and documents were confiscated. The criminal group was structured in two segments: the first one dealt with sheltering and transporting migrants to the boarding places in road cargo transport units, and the second segment was made up of truck drivers. According to DIICOT, the members of the group have also developed ties with people from some state institutions. The criminal activity took place from last year until now.

EPPO. 121 cases opened
last year by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office targeted Romania, with the
estimated damages standing at over 508 million euros, the institution said in
its annual report published on Wednesday. Also, at the end of last year,
Romania was involved in ten active cross-border investigations. A number of
persons were indicted in Romania who were involved in five cases investigated
by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, with a final court decision being
issued in one case. Most offences investigated in connection to Romania last
year referred to non-procurement and procurement expenditure fraud, non-VAT and
VAT fraud, corruption and money laundering. The European Public Prosecutor’s
Office, in which 22 of the European Union’s member states are taking part,
including Romania, is an independent body responsible for investigating,
prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of
the EU. It consists of 112 European delegated prosecutors, including 11
from Romania.

Spring. On March 1st,
Romania celebrated the Mărțișor (Spring Amulet) custom to mark the first day of spring. Early
20th century ethnologists found this ancient custom was practiced in the Romanian,
as well as the Bulgarian and Albanian communities in the Balkans. In rural
Romania, the Mărțișor was viewed as protection against disease and ill luck. A
silver coin with a wool or cotton red and white thread would be tied around
children’s wrists to protect them from disease. 12 days later, the coins would
be tied to a tree to ensure that the tree would yield fruit, or around the neck
of cattle to keep them healthy. Adopted by the urban world to become a fashion,
the Mărțișor today comes in all shapes and forms, including as a small piece of
jewelry to be worn as a broach or a necklace. The Mărțișor was inscribed in the
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017, following a joint
application from Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria and North
Macedonia. (MI)