March 15, 2016 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 15.03.2016, 12:15

The European Council on Tuesday hailed, in a communiqué, Romania’s tendency to make significant progress in the field of the judiciary, thus reiterating the conclusions related to the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification report made public in January. This tendency points to a higher sustainability of reforms, the European Council officials say. According to them, through the measures adopted, the main legal institutions involved in the fight against high level corruption maintained an impressive dynamics. The Council also draws attention to the importance of a wider and unequivocal commitment to reforms by all public institutions and political actors.

Romania’s Supreme Defense Council met Tuesday in Bucharest, being chaired by the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. The meeting focused on the adoption of urgent measures meant to amend certain laws against the backdrop of increased illegal migration at European level. High on the agenda of talks were the Program for the Romanian Army endowment until 2027, the political developments in the Republic of Moldova, fighting illegal logging from the national forest stock and cyber security. The participants also approved the report on the activity of the Supreme Defense Council for 2015, that will be forwarded to Parliament.

The European Commissioner for regional policy, Corina Cretu, met Tuesday in Brussels with the Moldovan PM, Pavel Filip. On the occasion, the European Commissioner expressed the support of the European Commission for Moldova’s European accession. The two talked about the efficient use of European funds, in order to consolidate the administrative capacity of the former Soviet Republic, and about Chisinau’s participation in projects included in the Danube Region Strategy. The Romania — Moldova cross-border cooperation program was also on the agenda of the meeting.

Romania is going through a crucial moment and it is important for it not to slow down the pace of fiscal consolidation or pay less attention to financial stability, the governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isarescu, said in Bucharest on Tuesday. According to the central bank governor, the country is running the risk of losing, to a certain extent, the progress it has made and needs legislative stability and clear laws, which should not create confusion. The convergence to the Euro zone can be a beneficial process, a catalyst of reforms says the central bank governor. In another move, the country’s reserves have increased by 6 billion Euros, and the country has paid back the money to the IMF, he underlined. Mugur Isarescu has admitted that many people and medium sized companies are going through difficult times and he said the GDP would be higher if the country had a better infrastructure.

Including Romania in the Visa Waiver Program is one of Bucharest’s priorities in the relation with Washington and there are lots of members of the US Congress who favour the idea, said Romania’s Ambassador to the US George Cristian Maior in an interview carried on Monday by Agerpress news agency. He stated that the partnership between Romania and the USA is a very good one, politically, economically and also with regard to security, and, no matter who will hold the reigns of power in the US in the future, either the Republicans or the Democrats, the grounds have been set for this partnership to keep on going well and deal with all the challenges posed by the realities of the 21st century. Domestically, Romania is a very cohesive state and with a clearly set strategic line when it comes to its foreign policy, and all these strengths must be used in reaching its diplomatic, political, economic and military interests, the Romanian ambassador has also stated.

A cell crisis has been activated within the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest, following the car crash in Turkey, in which two Romanian tourists died. 11 Romanians are still in hospital, the Foreign Ministry informs. The Romanian Presidency and Foreign Ministry have sent condolences to the grieving families and have given assurances that all the Romanian citizens affected are properly taken care of. The most serious accident of this type occurred in June 2013, when a coach full of Romanian tourists crashed into a 40 m precipice. 18 people died then, and 29 were injured. (news translated by Lacramioara Simion and Diana Vijeu)