October 19, 2015

A roundup of the main stories in Romania today

Newsroom, 19.10.2015, 12:00

The National Permanent Bureau of the Social Democratic Party, the
largest member of the ruling coalition in Bucharest, meets today following the
party’s extraordinary congress on Sunday to establish its new leadership team.
The congress confirmed the election of the party’s 14 vice-presidents, who will
work together with the new executive president Valeriu Zgonea. Liviu Dragnea is
the new leader of the party, having won last week’s elections as the only
candidate. He had been temporarily running the party since July, when prime
minister Victor Ponta stepped down as party leader following involvement in a
corruption scandal. Last May, Liviu Dragnea himself was convicted by a court of
first instance to a one-year suspended prison sentence for fraud during the 2012
referendum on the impeachment of the then president of Romania, Traian Basescu.

The postal
voting bill goes on the Senate’s agenda today. The Liberal opposition says it
will support the bill, which is to be passed by the Chamber of Deputies as
Parliament’s decision-making body. The bill is also supported by the Social
Democrats, in power, who say, however, that they will submit a number of
amendments to the bill. The National Union for the Progress of Romania and the
group of national ethnic minorities are also in favour of the bill. The postal
voting system will be used in the presidential and European elections and only
applies to Romanian citizens residing or living abroad.

Romania’s foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu travels to Israel today for
talks with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two officials
will discuss ways to consolidate bilateral ties and cooperation in various
fields such as investments, energy, tourism and agriculture. Mr. Aurescu will
meet researchers from the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum and
members of the community of Israelis born in Romania. The Romanian foreign
minister is also due to meet a number of Palestinian officials, including his
Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki, prime minister Rami
Hamdallah and president Mahmoud Abbas for talks on the current situation in the
Middle East and the possibility of resuming peace talks. During his trip to
Palestine, Mr. Aurescu will also meet members of the local Romanian community.

Romania’s gas imports dropped by almost 80% in the first 8 months of the
year compared to the similar period last year, according to data published
today by the National Institute for Statistics. This year, Romania has imported
67,000 tonnes of oil equivalent compared with 500,000 tonnes in 2014. The
country’s internal production of natural gas has seen a slight increase to
almost 9 billion tonnes of oil equivalent. Romania’s draft energy strategy for
the next 20 years, which can be found on the website of the relevant ministry,
shows that Romania has the largest natural gas reserves in central and eastern
Europe. According to the national energy strategy, if the current levels of
production and consumption are maintained, these reserves will run out in about
14 years’ time.

MPs from Moldova’s Liberal Democratic Party, a pro-European party and
member of the ruling coalition in this ex-Soviet state with a majority
Romanian-speaking population, have challenged the procedure to lift the
parliamentary immunity of their former leader and prime minister Vlad Filat
before the Constitutional Court, writes the Moldovan press. The MPs describe
the procedure initiated on the 15th of October as a cynical scheme against
Vlad Filat and the Liberal Democratic Party, which they say has been a
permanent target of attacks from different political groups in recent years.
Filat was detained on the 15th of October based on a warrant issued
by the National Anticorruption Centre soon after the Parliament in Chisinau
decided to suspend his judicial immunity. Filat is investigated for his alleged
direct involvement in the disappearance from the banking system of 1 billion
dollars.