March 15, 2018 UPDATE

EU officials visit Bucharest for assessment mission within the CVM, Leipzig book fair under way

Newsroom, 15.03.2018, 19:44

CVM — EU officials on Thursday met in Bucharest with representatives of the Romanian judiciary, the Parliament and Government as part of the assessment mission within the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification. The assessment mission will come to an end on Friday. The Justice Ministry officials have pointed out that talks are focusing on the analysis of recommendations, on the criminal and criminal procedure codes, the civil and civil procedure codes, and on the development strategy of the judiciary. The MCV was introduced in January 2007 upon Romania’s and Bulgaria’s EU accession, to support the two countries in order to overcome shortcomings in the reform of the judiciary and the anti-corruption fight. The Romanian authorities would like the MCV to be removed in 2019.

Book fair — Romania is a guest of honor at the 2018 International Book Fair in Leipzig, Germany. ‘Zoom in Romania’ is the motto for the more than 70 events to take place at the fair at the Romanian pavilion and in other locations, meant to promote the Romanian contemporary writers. In his inaugural speech, Romania’s foreign minister reminded that Romania was also a guest of honor at the Leipzig book fair 20 years ago.

Berlin — The Romanian Foreign Minister, Teodor Melescanu, ended his two-day visit to Germany. His agenda, on Friday, included meetings with the president of the Committee for European affairs in the Bundestag and with the president of the foreign affairs committee in the federal parliament. The talks focused on bilateral cooperation, EU enlargement and challenges facing the EU.

Poisoning — Great Britain, Germany, France and the US on Thursday made a joint declaration in which they claim that Russia’s responsibility is the only plausible explanation in the case of the nerve agent attack against a Russian double agent and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury last week. The leaders of the 4 countries called on Moscow to provide all information related to its chemical weapons program Novichok, given that this is the first time when a nerve agent of military use is used in Europe, after WWII. The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, labeled the accusations as rude and ungrounded. Moscow announced it was preparing to reply after London’s decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats. NATO considers the incident a clear violation of international norms and agreements on chemical weapons and the EU leaders will discuss next week the poisoning of the former Russian spy. The Romanian Foreign Ministry announced Romania’s solidarity with Great Britain.

Slovakia — The EU called on Slovakia to shed light on the assassination of the investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and to cooperate with the European Antifraud Office. The journalist was shot dead in February together with his girlfriend while he was conducting an investigation into a case of high-level corruption. In his last, unfinished article, Jan Kuciak wrote about alleged relations between Slovak politicians and Italian businesspeople suspected of links with the Calabria mafia. On Thursday the president of Slovakia accepted the resignation of PM Robert Fico, which he had handed in one day before, and announced early parliamentary elections for the second half of May. Previously, tens of thousands of people went out in the streets to protest against corruption and to ask for Fico’s resignation.

Flu — In Romania 101 people have died of flu, shows the National Center for Monitoring and Controlling Transmissible Diseases. As many as 1,200 cases of flu have been confirmed so far. The total number of acute respiratory infections registered last week exceed 140 thousand, 67% more than that reported in the same week of the past year.

Tennis — The Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, world’s no. 1, will play on Friday against Japanese Naomi Osaka (20 WTA) in the semifinals of the Indian Wells tournament in California, USA. The tournament has total prizes worth 8 million dollars. In the quarterfinals, Halep defeated Croat Petra Martic (51 WTA) 2-1 in the sets, while Osaka defeated in two sets Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic (5 WTA). Halep won the Indian Wells tournament in 2015. (news translated by Lacramioara Simion)