March 25, 2015
A roundup of local and international news
Newsroom, 25.03.2015, 12:00
The foreign ministry in Bucharest says there are no reports that any Romanian citizens were among the passengers of the plane that crashed in south-eastern France, but inquiries continue. An A320 Airbus operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline and flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf crashed on Tuesday into a mountainside in the French Alps. All the 150 people on board are presumed dead. According to the passenger list, most of the people on the plane were of German and Spanish nationality. One of the aircraft’s black boxes containing cockpit recordings has been found, but investigators are still looking for the flight recorder. The cause of the accident is unknown, but no explanation has been ruled out so far.
The government has approved the Fiscal Code and Fiscal Procedure Code, which will now be submitted to Parliament. The two bills aim at stimulating the business environment and creating new jobs. One of the most important provisions of the new Fiscal Code is a 4% cut in the VAT as of 2016 and a 15% VAT cut for meat, fruit and vegetables. Excise duties on car fuel will also be reduced by around 20%. The opposition is opposed to some of the provisions of the new codes, such as the rise in local taxes and duties, saying the new fiscal measures will have a negative impact on businesses.
The Senate has today approved a request by the National Anticorruption Directorate regarding the temporary arrest of the outgoing finance minister Darius Valcov. The case against Valcov refers to his term as mayor of the small town of Slatina, in the south, in 2008 and 2009. He is accused of taking bribes of 2 million euros to make sure the town hall awarded preferential contracts to certain companies. The Senate rejected, however, a request for the temporary arrest of the former transport minister Dan Sova, who is accused of complicity in abuse of power as part of an inquiry into the activity of two state-owned energy companies. Also today, the Chamber of Deputies will vote on a request to approve the temporary arrest of Theodor Nicolescu. The latter is accused of bribe taking and abuse of power in a case about the payment of overvalued compensations for property seized by the former communist regime. The former head of the National Integrity Agency Horia Georgescu was also detained as part of this case, in which damages are estimated at 75 million euros.
The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu has hailed the nomination of the American diplomat Hans G. Klemm as the new US ambassador to Romania. Mr Aurescu says he is looking forward to working with mr Klemm to consolidate the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the US. Hans G. Klemm, a career diplomat and a senior advisor to the Under Secretary for Management at the Department of State, was nominated as ambassador to Romania by US president Barack Obama on Monday. He needs the approval of the Congress before being appointed. The last US ambassador to Romania was Mark Gittenstein, who ended his term in 2012. Since then, the Bucharest embassy has been run by interim Charges d’Affaires.
Romania’s foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu was in London on Tuesday for talks with his British counterpart Philip Hammond about bilateral issues, as well as European and security aspects. Also in London, the Romanian official was a keynote speaker at a conference on ballistic missile defence. In his speech, he underlined that the development of NATO’s ballistic missile defence capabilities played an important role in the consolidation of transatlantic ties and allied capabilities. In his opinion, the Romanian-American strategic project regarding the deployment of an anti-missile shield at the military base in Deveselu enhanced stability and peace in Europe.
The Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu defeated the American player Shelby Rogers in two sets in the first round of the Miami tennis tournament worth 5.5 million dollars. In the second round, Niculescu will face world no. 1 Serena Williams. Also in the first round, qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru will face Elena Vesnina of Russia, while Sorana Cirstea plays against Christina McHale of the US. Two other Romanian players, world no. 3 Simona Halep and Irina Begu go straight into the second round. Last week, Halep won the Indian Wells tournament, the most important title in her career.
