October 1, 2024
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 01.10.2024, 13:55
NATO – A ceremony marking the transition to the new NATO Secretary General is being held in Brussels, in which Jens Soltenberg hands over the mandate to the new chief of the Alliance, Mark Rutte, the former Prime Minister of the Netherlands. With 10 years at the helm of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg is the second longest-serving Secretary-General of the Alliance, since its establishment 75 years ago. His mandate began in the context of the annexation of Crimea by Russia, then went through the withdrawal of allies from Afghanistan, the COVID crisis, and now through the war started by Russia. NATO expanded to 32 members, after the accession of Montenegro, North Macedonia, Finland and Sweden.
VISA WAIVER – Romania formally meets all technical criteria in order to be included in the Visa Waiver program, the Romanian ambassador to the United States, Andrei Muraru, announced on a social network. The fiscal year in the United States ended on Monday, and the last condition that Romania had to fulfill was satisfied. We are waiting for a confirmation from the American partners in the upcoming period, but our assessment, based on the number of visa applications this year, as well as the strong downward trend in recent years, is that Romania has dropped below the 3% rejection rate, Muraru explained. According to the ambassador, the first Romanians will most likely be able to travel without visas to the United States, in the first part of next year.
LAW – The head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Romanian Laura Codruţa Kövesi, has called on the European Parliament to change the institution’s regulations, to allocate a bigger budget and for a better collaboration with the member states. She says that the number of cases of cross-border financial fraud has doubled year on year, and the information collected about organized crime exceeds the analytical power of the Prosecutor’s Office and even Europol. Last year, following the investigations of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, court sentences were given for the recovery of 1.7 billion euros, and 600 million euros have already been returned to the member states, Kövesi explained. At the moment, over 2,000 cases are under investigation, with damages estimated at 23 billion euros. Romania was involved in 260 cases, with a damage of almost 2 billion euros.
INVESTMENT – The net flow of direct foreign investments in Romania in 2023 was almost 6.75 billion euros, down by 36.3% compared to the record value recorded in the previous year, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) has announced. BNR experts say that this development is part of the current international context, marked by economic risks and geopolitical tensions. The main sectors that attracted foreign money in Romania were industry, financial intermediation, insurance and trade.
PARLIAMENT – Convened in joint session, the Romanian deputies and senators are appointing, today, the members of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Romania. According to political sources, the current governor Mugur Isărescu, who has been holding this position since 1990, is supported for a new mandate at the helm of BNR. Also today, the Parliament submits for approval two requests from President Klaus Iohannis – the participation of the Romanian Army in the NATO Security Assistance and Training Mission for Ukraine and the establishment, on the Romania territory, of a maritime training facility for the Ukrainian personnel. The two Parliament chambers will be informed, on the other hand, about the approval of the transit, through Romania, of equipment and material goods donated by Sweden to Ukraine, but also about the presence on the Romanian territory, for a period of two years, of an American contingent of naval forces for special operations.
ISRAEL – The Israeli military launched a ground operation in a number of villages in southern Lebanon, saying it focused on clearing out militant infrastructure prepared by the elite force of the Hezbollah for the invasion of Israeli territory. The invasion was being supported by the Israeli air force, which targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, an area considered the stronghold of the Shiite movement. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had previously indicated that the army was ready for a ground operation, telling troops near the border with Lebanon that Israel was ready to use air, sea and land forces against Hezbollah targets. In turn, the deputy leader of the Hezbollah said that his militants are prepared for any Israeli operation in Lebanon.
