March 9, 2016 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 09.03.2016, 12:15

Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday went
to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and met with representatives of the Israeli
community of Romanian origin. The official agenda of the head of state, whose
visit started on Sunday, also included talks with his counterpart Reuven
Rivlin, PM Benjamin Netanyahu and the Knesset Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein.
Also in Jerusalem, Klaus Iohannis announced he would talk with the Romanian
Government about setting up in Bucharest a museum dedicated to Jews and the Holocaust.
On Thursday, the Romanian president will travel to the Palestinian territories,
where he will meet with President Mahmoud Abbas.

Romanian society is capable
of taking responsibility, without being monitored from the outside, for the
fight against corruption and the independence of the judiciary, said on
Wednesday the Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos. He met in the Hague with
his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte, whose country has repeatedly stood against
Romania’s joining the Schengen area. On the occasion, Ciolos underscored that
Romania’s progress had been highlighted in the latest report of the Cooperation
and Verification Mechanism, a tool used by the European Commission to monitor the Romanian justice system. In
turn, PM Rutte said that the January report stressed the major steps that
Romania had made towards reforming the judiciary and in the fight against
corruption. Scheduled initially to take place in 2011, Romania’s joining the
free movement area has been postponed, because of the opposition of some of the
member countries, which have voiced their distrust in the effectiveness of the
Romanian justice system.

The last sovereign of Romania, Mihai I (1940-1947), continues to
be in a severe but stable condition, news agencies quote sources close to the
Royal House as saying. No major changes have occurred since the previous
medical report was released on March 4, when doctors said his evolution was
relatively stable. King Mihai, 94, underwent cancer surgery and announced his
withdrawal from public life, on March 1, saying that his first born of his five
daughters, Princess Margareta, the Custodian of the Crown, will represent him
and will replace him in accomplishing his public duties. On August 23, 1944,
during WWII, the King ordered the arrest of the de facto leader of the country,
marshal Ion Antonescu, Romania’s withdrawal from the alliance with Nazi Germany
and the country’s return to the side of its traditional allies, the United
States and Great Britain. According to historians, his decision shortened the
war by at least 6 months, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Three years
later, when the country was practically under Soviet military occupation and
was led by a communist government, the King was forced to abdicate and to go
into exile in the West. He could return to the country only after the 1989
anti-communist Revolution.

Romania’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday
motivated its decision by which the Romanian Intelligence Service can no longer
conduct interceptions relating to criminal cases. According to the Court’s
ruling, only police officers and prosecutors can intercept phone conversations,
not the Intelligence Service, which is not a criminal investigation body. Among
other things, the Court referred to the provisions of the Romanian Constitution
and of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights regarding privacy and the right to
confidential correspondence. The
Constitutional Court has stated that the ruling also applies to cases pending
before the court of law. Also on
Wednesday, the National Anti-corruption Directorate announced that, due to the
changes in the regulations regarding interceptions, it needed an additional 130
staff and technical equipment, which would cost some 10 million Euros from the
state budget.

On Wednesday, the Romanian Chamber of Deputies
decided to not endorse the request made by prosecutors with the Anti-corruption
Directorate to place under preventive arrest the Social Democrat Cristian
Rizea. However, the Chamber endorsed the request for Rizea to be detained.
Rizea is accused of influence peddling, money laundering and subornation of
perjury. Prosecutors say that Rizea allegedly received 300,000 Euros in bribe
from an American citizen, to intervene in a case of land property return. The
MP has rejected the accusations and has stated that, in the run up to the June
5th elections, he’s been put under pressure to withdraw from the
race for the position of mayor of one of Bucharest’s districts.

The law on giving
in payment will trigger a drop in prices on the real estate market of at least
10%, which will in turn lead to a decrease in people’s welfare by 2,000 Euro
per household. The statement was made on Wednesday by the Vice-Governor of the
National Bank of Romania, Liviu Voinea, according to whom the law will have
negative consequences for the banking sector, the Government and the entire
economy, as consumption will also drop. Late last month, the Senate unanimously
adopted the law on giving in payment, under which a debt is discharged if the
one who took the loan gives to the bank the mortgaged property. The law is now
under debate by the Chamber of Deputies, which is the decision-making body in
this matter.