March 25, 2015 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
România Internațional, 25.03.2015, 12:15
The former Romanian Finance Minister Darius Valcov was detained on Wednesday, a few hours after the Senate approved the National Anti-Corruption Directorate’s request to lift his parliamentary immunity and to approve his temporary arrest. Valcov is being prosecuted for acts of corruption committed back in 2008 — 2009, when he was the mayor of the town of Slatina, in southern Romania. According to the prosecutors, he got 2 million Euros in bribe, in exchange for awarding certain contracts to one particular firm. The Senate is also to decide on a similar request, concerning other acts of corruption that Valcov allegedly committed as a senator and cabinet minister. The Senate rejected, however, a request for the temporary arrest of the former Transport Minister Dan Sova, who is accused of accessory to abuse of power as part of an inquiry into the activity of two state-owned energy companies. Also on Wednesday, the Chamber of Deputies approved the temporary arrest of Theodor Nicolescu, accused of bribe-taking and official misconduct in a case concerning the payment of compensations for overrated buildings. The former head of the National Integrity Agency, Horia Georgescu, was also detained as party in this case, in which the damage is estimated at 75 million Euros.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday, after the Senate rejected the National Anti-Corruption Directorate’s request for arresting Dan Sova, that nobody was above the law and Parliament should not act as a court of instance. The head of state said he could not overlook the fact that Parliament blocked once again a request by the Anti-Corruption Directorate. The judiciary is the only one that should have a say in such a matter, starting of course from the presumption of innocence, the president said. The US, UK and Dutch embassies in Bucharest have reacted to the Senate’s decision regarding Dan Sova. The US Embassy has stated that parliamentary immunity should not be used abusively to prevent holding certain people responsible for their acts, and cases of corruption must be allowed to be investigated and the law must be observed. The British Embassy has voiced worries that the Anti-Corruption Directorate has not had much success in convincing the Romanian Parliament to approve its requests to investigate and arrest certain officials. The Dutch Embassy too is worried and surprised with the Senate’s decision in Sova’s case, and has stressed that law must be the same for everybody.
The Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu met on Wednesday in Bucharest with the President of the Moldovan Parliament Adrian Candu. The Romanian official stressed the role that the Parliament in Chisinau must play with regard to reform implementation in the Republic of Moldova. During the talks Aurescu tackled the issue of the EU citizen’s access to the Republic of Moldova on the basis of their IDs, giving as an example the Western Balkan countries. The two officials also discussed the political developments in Moldova, including in the aftermath of the elections in Gagauzia and the prospects for settling the Transdiniestr conflict.
On Wednesday, the Romanian Government approved the draft Fiscal Code and Fiscal Procedure Code, which are now to be debated by Parliament. The two bills aim at stimulating the business environment and creating new jobs. Some of the most important amendments to the old Fiscal Code are the 4% cut in the VAT starting 2016 and the 15% VAT cut for meat, fruit and vegetables. According to the new bill, excise duties on car fuels will also be reduced by around 20%. The opposition however is unhappy with certain provisions in the two codes, such as the rise in local taxes and duties, saying the new fiscal measures will have a negative impact on businesses.
The French President Francois Hollande, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the head of the Spanish Government Mariano Rajoy met on Wednesday in Seyne-les-Alpes, in the French Alps, near the site where the Germanwings Airbus A320 crashed. The three European leaders expressed their sympathy for the 150 victims of the crash, most of them German and Spanish citizens. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has announced that there are no reports indicating that Romanian citizens were on board that plane, but inquiries continue. The plane operated by Lufthansa’s Germanwings budget airline was flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf .
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.
Road transport associations from Romania, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic held a joint protest rally in Brussels on Wednesday, to voice their dissatisfaction with salaries in Europe. The protest was organized simultaneously with a plenary session of the European Parliament, focusing, among other things, on protectionism in the EU and the minimum salary in the transport sector.
