March 9, 2024 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 09.03.2024, 20:00
ROȘIA MONTANĂ – Romania has won the legal dispute against the Canadian miner Gabriel Resources, launched in 2015, following a ruling of the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, made public on Friday. The Romanian state is thus under no obligation to pay damages to the Canadian mining company, and instead must receive over 7 mln EUR and another 1 mln USD in court fees and other arbitration-related costs. The decision came as a surprise, after in recent weeks ruling coalition politicians said Romania is expected to lose the legal battle. President Klaus Iohannis has welcomed the announcement and congratulated the team of experts supporting Romania’s cause. “It wouldn’t have been fair for every public sector employee and pension in Romania to pay for the mistakes of politicians who acted against the country’s best interests”, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in an online post. The ruling in Romania’s favor came as a result of the efforts of the team of experts at the Finance Ministry, led by Marcel Boloș and his team of lawyers, PNL leader Nicolae Ciucă said in turn. From the opposition, USR president Cătălin Drulă accused the PSD-PNL ruling coalition of having caused a public hysteria in recent weeks by encouraging a toxic campaign claiming Romania will be forced to pay billions of EUR in damages. The decision can be appealed over the next four months. Gabriel Resources sought damages worth 6.7 bln USD, invoking huge losses caused by the Romanian authorities’ decision not to start exploitation works at the Roșia Montană gold mine, where the Canadian miner had allegedly invested sizable amounts of money. In 2021, Roșia Montană was included on the UNESCO World Heritage list, which blocked any further attempts at resuming mining operations.
ELECTIONS – The Government of Romania has adopted an emergency decree on the timetable of the elections in Romania. The document stipulates the joint organization of the local election with the European Parliament election on June 9. The election campaign is set to begin on March 12. Lawmakers say hosting the two ballots on the same date will spell numerous benefits and will boost voter turnout. The president of the Permanent Election Authority, Toni Greblă, says the measure sought to observe the Constitution, the provisions of the Venice Commission and the relevant legislation. The election will occasion the use of a special automated system, administered by the Special Telecommunications Service, to monitor voter turnout and prevent illegal voting. The presidential election will be held in September while the election for the Romanian Parliament will be held in December.
ROAD FATALITY RATES – The European Commission on Friday published preliminary figures on road fatalities for 2023. Around 20,400 people were killed in road crashes in the EU last year, a small 1% decrease compared to 2022. Despite some progress since the baseline year of 2019, few Member States are on track to meet the EU and UN target of halving the number of road deaths by 2030. Since 2019, the number of road deaths has scarcely fallen in Spain, France and Italy, while it has risen in Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden. The overall ranking of countries’ fatality rates has not changed significantly, with the safest roads still found in Sweden (22 deaths per one million inhabitants) and Denmark (27/million). Bulgaria (82/million) and Romania (81/million) reported the highest fatality rates in 2023. The EU average was 46 road deaths per million inhabitants.
WAR IN UKRAINE – Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has announced, following his meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that Turkey offers to host a peace summit between Russia and Ukraine. The two officials discussed the current phase of the war. Turkey will greatly contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine at the end of the conflict, president Erdoğan added. In turn, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia will not be invited to the first meeting, although Moscow will be able to send its representatives to subsequent meetings, once peace roadmap has been agreed with Ukraine’s allies at the meeting scheduled to take place in Switzerland. Turkey is a member of NATO and has supporter Ukraine’s territorial integrity, although it maintained cordial relations with Russia and engages in periodic talks with both parties to the conflict.
MARCH 9 – The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, a group of Christian Roman soldiers who were sentenced to death and froze on the lake of Sebaste (Lesser Armenia, present-day Turkey) are commemorated each year on March 9. They died in 320, during the Christian persecution campaign of Emperor Licinus. According to tradition, an 8-shaped typed of traditional pastry called “mucenici” are baked on this occasion and offered as alms to the poor. Also on March 9, Romania commemorates the anti-communist political prisoners of 1944-1989. Religious services are held to commemorate those who suffered under the communist dictatorship, as well as those who died in communist extermination sites. The city of Timișoara (western Romania) saw the opening of the exhibition “The Pitești Phenomenon – The True face of Communism in Romania”, hosted by the 1989 Revolution Memorial. The exhibition presents a chronology of violent actions of the communist regime at the Pitești penitentiary, where over 600 political prisoners, mostly students, were tortured in the 1949-1952 period. Some original objects are also on display. (VP)
