March 20, 2015
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 20.03.2015, 12:05
Heads of state and government continue in Brussels the two-day summer session of the European Council. Romania is represented by President Klaus Iohannis. Today’s agenda is focused on the economic situation of the EU and the stage of negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the US, and agreement that the EU plans on concluding by the end of this year. Yesterday, the 28 European leaders discussed the sanctions imposed on Russia for its involvement in the crisis in Ukraine and decided to take measures aimed at counter fighting the Russian media’s propaganda and manipulation. Also, the heads of state and government decided to strengthen the Energy Union project, which is a priority for the EU. More on this after the news.
The request for temporary custody issued for the Romanian resigning finance minister Darius Valcov has reached the Senate. He is being prosecuted in a corruption case concerning his decisions as mayor of the town of Slatina, in southern Romania, in 2008 and 2009. According to the anti-corruption prosecutors, Valcov got 2 million Euros in bribe money in exchange for contracts he awarded to a certain company that he favoured. In another move, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate has issued a detainment and temporary custody order for the MP Theodor Nicolescu, who is accused of bribe-taking and official misconduct in a case involving damages paid unduly for overrated buildings. In the same case, where the damage has been estimated at some 75 million Euros, the president of the National Integrity Agency, Horia Georgescu was also arrested for 30 days
The Romanian Foreign Ministry has called on the Tunisian authorities to verify the accuracy of the information recently carried by the media, according to which the perpetrators of the attack committed on a museum in Tunis had on them machine guns from Romania. The Romanian Authority for the control of strategic imports and exports will carry out the necessary tracking procedure, provided the Tunisian authorities place at Romanian authorities’ disposal those weapons’ IDs, reads the ministry’s communiqué. According to Tunisian authorities, the attack, claimed by the Islamic State, was perpetrated by terrorists equipped with machine guns and explosive belts, and ended in 23 dead and 50 wounded, mostly European tourists.
Some 25 Romanian companies are attending in Hanover, Germany, the most important IT and communications fair in the world, CEBIT. According to the Romanian Ministry of the Economy and Trade, the national pavilion, called Romania IT” mostly presents software solutions for a wide range of applications. Participating in this year’s edition of the fair are over 3 thousand 7 hundred companies form 75 countries.
Lufthansa pilots continue the strike they went on three days ago. Over 700 flights due today have been cancelled, with over 84 thousand passengers affected. The pilots are protesting against the company board’s intention to change the retirement conditions and also against the company’s favoring its low-cost branch. Air traffick in Europe is also affected by an Italian air traffic controllers’ strike, because of which dozens of flights have been cancelled. Among them there are 9 flights from Munich and Frankfurt that should have reached the Romanian ‘Henri Coanda’ airport today, as well as 15 departures from the Bucharest airport to several destinations, including Milan, Rome and Bari.
Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, the third best player in the world according to the WTA classification, is today playing against the first ranked Serena Williams, in the semifinals of the Indian Wells tournament in the US, with 5.4 million dollars in prize money. In the quarters, Halep defeated in three sets the Spanish player Carla Suarez Navarro. This is Simona Halep’s second consecutive participation in the semifinals of the Californian tournament. Also at the Indian Wells, the pair made up of the Romanian Florin Mergea and the British Dominic Inglot was eliminated in the quarters by the pair made of up Marcin Matkowski, from Poland and Nenad Zimonjic from Serbia.
