May 17, 2015 UPDATE

For a roundup of domestic and international events, click here.

Newsroom, 17.05.2015, 12:15

ANTI-CORRUPTION — Romania is fighting an intense anti-corruption battle, president Klaus Iohannis told the German publication ARD. The president said anti-corruption is not his hobby, but a necessity for Romania to continue its development. The president criticized the recent proposals to amend the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, saying that if Parliament should greenlight them, he would challenge them at the Constitutional Court. In turn, Anti-Corruption Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi said the bills to modify the codes are aimed at limiting the attributions of prosecutors and investigation possibilities, after the recent investigations have caused panic to spread among politicians.

MEETING — Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Monday is joining his counterparts from EU Member States as part of a new meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council. Participants will examine the recent progress in the peacemaking process in the Middle East, after the set up of a new Government in Israel. On the sideline of the meeting, Aurescu and his counterparts will meet with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, as well as with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.

ILLEGAL LOGGING — The Government has put up for debate two emergency ordinances suspending exports of logs and firewood until August 31, after which date any wood sales will be strictly monitored. According to the Government, the two ordinances re aimed at regulating the wood market until the Forestry Code comes into effect. The document is again on the table of the Chamber of Deputies, after president Klaus Iohannis called for a re-analysis of the law. The president and the Liberal opposition claim some of the Code’s provisions are allegedly in breach of European standards. In response, the Social-Democratic Party accused the Liberals of advocating the interests of foreign businesses in the wood industry. For the second consecutive weekend, protests were staged in Bucharest and other cities against illegal and abusive logging in the past 25 years.

IMF — A technical mission of the IMF and the European Commission will visit Bucharest in May 19-26. Talks with Romanian authorities will focus on the new Fiscal Code and the status of implementation of the provisions in the programme signed with the IMF and the EC. The current agreement, the third since the economic crisis of 2009, will come to an end this autumn. The agreement was signed in September 2013 over a period of two years and is worth 2 billion euros. The European Commission has called on Romania to take all the necessary measures to finalize the term of the precautionary stand-by financial assistance programme.

EU DEFENCE — Romanian Defence Minister Mircea Dusa on Monday is attending the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting and the discussion panel of the Executive Board of the European Defence Agency. The main topic on the agenda of the panel is the forthcoming European Council meeting on security and defence, to be held in late June. The Foreign Affairs Council meeting will review the status of military operations and missions carried out under the EU Common Security and Defence Policy. Other topics are linked with the need to revise the EU Security Strategy from the perspective of changes in the global security context, and with the implementation of measures aimed at ensuring the access of SMEs to the military equipment market.

NATO — Europe’s security has deteriorated significantly in recent years, Hungarian Defence Minister Csaba Hende said on the sideline of NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly meeting held on Sunday in Budapest. Minister Hende said that Eastern and Southern Europe is confronted with mounting pressure exerted by the waves of immigrants from Northern Africa and the Middle East. The Hungarian official said instability in the Middle East was caused by the events of the Arab Spring, but also by the crises in Yemen and Syria, which contributed to the rise of extremism and the consolidation of the Islamic State.

TENNIS — Romanian tennis player Simona Halep is again ranked 3rd in WTA standings. Halep went down one place after being knocked out of the Rome tournament, won by Maria Sharapova of Russia, who is now ranked 2nd. Last year’s finalists in Roland Garros, Halep and Sharapova will this month play in a new edition of the Grand Slam tournament in France.