November 29, 2023
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Newsroom, 29.11.2023, 13:55
PENSIONS Romania’s former MPs may keep their special
pensions, and Parliament is only allowed to eliminate these benefits in the
future, the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously on Tuesday. On June 26,
Parliament voted in favour of scrapping special pensions for Senators and Deputies,
an obligation undertaken by Romania under its National Recovery and Resilience
Plan. Close to 850 former MPs benefited from special pensions in May this year.
INVESTIGATION The Senate of
Romania is to decide on Wednesday whether to approve the request of the
National Anti-Corruption Directorate to commence prosecution against the former
PM Florin Cîţu for complicity to abuse of office in an investigation
concerning the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines. Florin Cîţu said he would
request his fellow Liberal Party members to lift his parliamentary immunity. Previously,
president Klaus Iohannis forwarded to the Justice Ministry the prosecution
requests concerning 2 former health ministers from Save Romania Union, Vlad
Voiculescu and Ioana Mihăilă, and notified the General Prosecutor’s Office in
this respect. The 2 are probed into for abuse of office in relation to the
procurement of vaccines.
CORRUPTION The mayor of the city of Baia Mare (north-west),
Cătălin Cherecheş, who fled the country after being sentenced to 5
years in prison in a corruption case, was apprehended in Germany, the Romanian
Police announced. He was identified and taken into custody by the police in Bavaria based on the information provided by the Romanian
authorities. Sources close to the investigation say the former mayor was aided
by an aunt and was attempting to leave Germany when he was caught. Cherecheş
had left the country on Friday, using the ID of a family member, and the procedures
for returning him to the country are under way.
NATURAL GAS Europe
has taken major steps in terms of preparations for winter. Following the energy
crisis in the post-pandemic period and the start of the Russian invasion in
Ukraine, EU member states have replaced Russian natural gas with liquefied gas
from the US and natural gas from Norway, and have unprecedented stocks. Reuters
reports that in mid-November oil stocks were 12 million barrels above the season
average of the past 10 years. Natural gas stocks are also at record-high
levels, after consumption in the industrial sector dropped by around 13%. Average
prices, adjusted to inflation, were around EUR 48 per megawatt hour, down from
EUR 223 in August 2022, and analysts expect the downward trend will continue
next year. Bucharest says Romania will not have problems with the supply of
natural gas if temperatures remain normal this winter. The Romanian energy
minister Sebastin Burduja said all gas storage facilities are full and the
government has emergency supply plans in place if necessary.
NATO The Romanian
diplomacy chief Luminita Odobescu takes part in a 2-day meeting of NATO foreign
ministers, held in Brussels. The meeting takes place in a complicated security
context, with
an impact on multiple geographic areas of interest, including the continuing
Russian aggression against Ukraine, the military conflict between Israel and
Hamas and tensions in the Western Balkans. The meeting also has special
political importance in terms of the preparations for the 2024 Summit in
Washington. Luminita Odobescu will highlight the strategic importance of the
Black Sea for the Euro-Atlantic security and will plead for a more structured
approach to the region, in line with the decisions taken by NATO in Madrid and
Vilnius. The NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg hailed Germany’s boosting
its support for Ukraine by EUR 8 bln and the additional EUR 2 bln provided by
the Netherlands. He also mentioned the set-up of a training centre for Ukrainian
F-16 aircraft pilots. (AMP)
