March 18, 2015 UPDATE

A look at some of the main stories in Romania today

Newsroom, 18.03.2015, 12:15

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will attend the spring summit of the European Council on Thursday and Friday, according to a release from the president’s office. Ahead of the summit, Iohannis will attend the European People’s Party summit before a European Council meeting with the president of the European Parliament. After the Council’s first working session, the Romanian president will attend a working dinner of EU heads of state and government. On Friday, Iohannis will attend the Council’s second working session.

The former head of the National Integrity Agency Horia Georgescu is in temporary custody after Romania’s High Court endorsed a request to this effect from anti-corruption prosecutors. Georgescu resigned following the start of investigations into a case of abuse of power with damages to the state estimated at 75 million euros. He is suspected of approving over-valued compensation for property confiscated by the former communist regime while working at the National Agency for the Return of Property, in 2008 and 2009. Also on Wednesday, the Senate’s legal committee approved a request by the National Anticorruption Directorate concerning the arrest of MP and former Social Democrat transport minister Dan Sova. The latter is accused of complicity in abuse of power as part of inquiries into the activity of two state-owned energy companies. In another development, the High Court ruled that the mayor of the Black Sea port of Constanta Radu Mazare was to be released pending trial. Mazare is suspected of taking bribes of 9 million euros.

The United Nations and the US have firmly condemned the terrorist attacks committed on Wednesday at the Bardo Museum in the Tunisian capital, in which 19 people were killed. The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini blamed “terrorist organizations” for the attack and said the EU is “determined to mobilise all the tools it has to fully support Tunisia in the fight against terrorism and reforming the security sector”. The Romanian foreign ministry has also condemned the attack and reiterated its supports for the efforts of the Tunisian authorities to combat terrorism. According to the foreign ministry, Romania’s ambassador in Tunis was in the Parliament building near by the museum when the attack occurred, but he was evacuated and is safe. According to the Tunisian prime minister Habib Essid, at least 19 people, including 17 Polish, Italian, German and Spanish tourists and two Tunisian nationals, were killed in the attack. Earlier, the spokesman of the interior ministry in Tunis said two tourists taken hostage in the museum had been freed.

Romania will not recognise “the treaty on alliance and integration” signed by Russia and the Georgian break-away region of South Ossetia. According to the foreign ministry in Bucharest, this is a new attempt by Russia to undermine Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and hinder efforts to strengthen regional security and stability. The treaty was signed in Moscow by president Vladimir Putin and the South Ossetian leader Leonid Tibilov on the anniversary of one year since Crimea’s annexation by Russia. NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg says the treaty violates international law, while the US State Department has announced it does not recognise the legitimacy of the treaty.

Romania’s government meets on Thursday to discuss the new Fiscal Code and the Fiscal Procedure Code, which have been under public debate for a month. Prime minister Victor Ponta says that after they are approved by the cabinet, the two bills will be submitted to Parliament for discussion and approval. The new fiscal provisions are scheduled to come into effect as of January next year.

Over 25 Romanian companies take part in the Hannover CeBIT fair, the biggest event in the digital industry. Romania’s pavilion, called “RomaniaIT”, mainly exhibits software solutions for a large array of applications, according to the Ministry of Trade and Economy in Bucharest. The fair brings together 3,700 exhibitors from 75 different countries. Organisers are expecting 250,000 visitors this year.

A quarter of all production units at the Oltenia Energy Complex in southern Romania will be closed down as part of a downsizing plan, said the plant’s manager Laurentiu Ciurel on Wednesday. Four facilities and a number of quarries and mines will be closed, the activity will be reduced at other facilities and 3,000 employees will be made redundant. Tens of miners barricaded themselves underground on Tuesday and others are on a hunger strike to protest against planned redundancies. 1,200 employees of other mines in Valcea which have recently been taken over by the Oltenia Energy Complex have also stopped working. In the meantime, trade unions continue talks with the company’s management on a new collective employment contract for 2015.