March 4, 2017 UPDATE

Corruption continues to be one of Romanias major problems, according to the US Department of States report.

Newsroom, 04.03.2017, 19:21

REPORT – Corruption continues to be one of Romania’s major problems, according to the US Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016. According to the report, bribe giving and taking continues to be a widespread practice in the public sector, the laws are not always enforced effectively and the officials, including judges, are sometimes corrupt and are not being punished. The report also mentions that the immunity held by former and current ministers, who are also parliament members, has sometimes blocked criminal investigations. The report denounces discrimination against the Rroma minority, prison overcrowding and the media politicisation. Politicians and political groups own or control indirectly numerous national or local press groups and the news often reflect the owners’ political convictions, the reports also reveals.

QUAKE — Romania commemorated on saturday 40 years since the devastating quake of March 4, 1977, measuring 7.2 degrees on the Richter scale, that killed 1,570 people. The quake also caused material damage worth over 2 billion dollars. About 230 thousand homes were seriously damaged and 760 economic units became unfunctional. The earthquake generated an economic and social crisis that, according to historians, the communist dictatorship of that time was unable to overcome. Experts have warned that hundreds of buildings risk collapsing in the capital Bucharest in case of an earthquake of an equal magnitude.

PNL – The National Coordination Council of the right-of-centre National Liberal Party, the main opposition party in Romania, on Saturday decided on the roadmap, procedures and manner of electing its president. Although many Liberals favoured the idea of the partzzy president to be elected directly, by all party members, this will only be the prerogative of the delegates at the Congress due in June. Until then, Raluca Turcan will continue to be the party’s interim president, after being validated by most members. So far, former ministers Ludovic Orban and Catalin Predoius have voiced their intention to run for party president, after Alina Gorghiu resigned this position following the defeat in the parliamentary elections.

JUSTICE — Romania’s new justice minister, Tudorel Toader, announced that in about six weeks he would present the Government a draft law that would modify the criminal law in keeping with the Constitutional Court’s decisions. In an interview on Radio Romania, the minister said the law would be debated and adopted in Parliament. Tudorel Toader was appointed at the helm of the justice ministry in February, following the serious political crisis triggered by the government’s attempt to change the criminal laws through emergency decrees.

TENNIS — The team made up of the Romanian Horia Tecau and the Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer won on Saturday the men’s doubles final of the Dubai tournament with 2.4 million dollars in prize money. Tecau and Rojer defeated the Indian-Polish tem Rohan Bopanna/Marcin Matkowski, in three sets 4-6, 6-3, 10-3. Horia Tecau has so far won 30 ATO tournaments in men’s doubles and lost 17 finals. The Romanian won 13 titles together with Jean-Julien Rojer.

RUGBY – Romania’s rugby team on Saturday defeated Russia away from home, 30-10. The match played in Sochi and counts for the third round of Rugby Europe Championship. In the first game, the Oaks lost 38-41 to Germany, and then they defeated Spain, 13-3. Romania’s next fixtures are the match against Belgium away from home on March 11 and the home game against Georgia, scheduled for March 19.

WOMEN’S HANDBALL – European champions CSM Bucharest qualified to the Champions League’s quarterfinals after defeating on Friday evening, on home turf, the Slovenian team Krim Ljubljana, 28-26. In the last match of the group CSM Bucharest will be up against the Danish team Ebsjerg. Most probably, the Romanian team’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be the Macedonian side Vardar Skopje.

(Translated by Elena Enache)