November 24, 2014 UPDATE
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România Internațional, 24.11.2014, 12:15
The new ministers of culture and foreign affairs, Csilla Hegedüs representing the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania and Bogdan Aurescu were sworn in on Monday in Bucharest. Mrs. Hegedus Csilla, who will also be a deputy prime minister, has so far been a secretary of state with the Culture Ministry and is replacing the leader of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor, who resigned in July. Bogdan Aurescu was appointed head of the Romanian foreign Ministry, who previously held the position of secretary of state within that ministry. Aurescu has stood out in the case which Romania won against Ukraine at the International Court of Justice regarding the Black Sea continental shelf, and also in the negotiation of the file regarding the anti-missile defense shield with the US and the negotiations with Serbia regarding the Romanian minority in that country. The foreign minister position had remained vacant after the successive resignations of Titus Corlatean and Teodor Melescanu, following the flaws reported in the voting process at the polling stations set up abroad for the presidential election.
The Romanian Superior Council of Magistracy decided to suspend Alina Bica, the former chief prosecutor of the Directorate for investigating organized crime and terrorism from magistracy. She had resigned her position after she was put under preventive arrest for 30 days, in a corruption file. Alina Bica is accused of having approved, in 2011, when she was an undersecretary of state with the Justice Ministry and a member in a committee that was dealing in land retrocession, the payment of over-estimated damages. The prejudice is estimated to stand at more than 60 million euros. In the same file, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate asked the Camber of Deputies to approve the taking into custody and the preventive arrest of MP Marko Attila Gábor, a former colleague of Alina Bica in the land retrocession committee.
The 8 soldiers who died Friday in a helicopter crash in the county of Sibiu (in central Romania) were commemorated Monday at the headquarters of the Romanian Defense Ministry as part of a military and religious ceremony. All military units in Romania and abroad hosted commemoration ceremonies to honor the memory of the 8 victims. 8 soldiers have died and 2 have been wounded following the crash of a military helicopter IAR-330 PUMA, due to weather conditions. The helicopter was supposed to participate in a military drill alongside American military. Such helicopters that belong to the Romanian Defense Ministry have previously been involved in similar accidents that also left behind dead people.
Romania’s draft state budget for 2015 will be finalized on Friday, said Monday the minister delegate for budget, Darius Vâlcov. He pointed out that the draft budget would be discussed next week with the representatives of the European Commission, the IMF and the World Bank, and most probably on December 10th it would be forwarded to Parliament for debates and adoption. Darius Vâlcov reminded that the draft budget would not include increases in fees and taxes, the main priority being investments from European funds. Also the Romanian official underscored that the rise in teachers’ salaries, in 2 stages, is included in the draft budget for 2015.
The Moldovan Supreme Security Council believes that there are forces that act against the national interest and are undertaking actions that can threaten the national security of the Republic of Moldova. Convening on Monday at the request of President Nicolae Tomofti, the Moldovan Supreme Security Council gave assurances that the state bodies would take all necessary action to prevent the destabilization of the situation in the country. On Sunday the former Soviet republic with a majority Romanian-speaking population will see parliamentary elections, which are considered crucial for the future orientation of the state. Opinion polls show that the elections will be won by the main pro-European formations, which will get more votes than the Communists’ Party, of pro-Russian orientation.
The great powers and Iran have not managed to reach a definitive agreement in Vienna, on Monday, regarding Teheran’s nuclear program and have decided to continue negotiations until June 30th 2015, said the British foreign secretary Philip Hammond. He pointed out that Iran would benefit from the unfreezing of its assets worth up to 700 million dollars per month during the process of negotiation of an agreement regarding its nuclear program. The US, Great Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany suspect that Iran is trying the develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, but he Islamic regime in Teheran rejects the accusations.
The US defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, 68, on Monday resigned his post. The US Department of Defense pointed out that President Barack Obama accepted Hagel’s resignation. He was the only Republican in his team for national security. Chuck Hagel was appointed in 2013 to manage the defense budget cuts and the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The subsequent world crises, among which the war in Syria, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the threat posed by the Jihadist group the Islamic State, have caught the Obama administration off guard, analysts say. A Vietnam War veteran, Hagel is expected to stay on as secretary until his successor is confirmed.
