October 19, 2016

Around 70 NATO member and partner states attend the Strategic Military Partner Conference in Bucharest. /Romanias Supreme Court begins trial of former interior minister Gabriel Oprea for abuse of office and embezzlement.

Newsroom, 19.10.2016, 12:00

NATO. Bucharest
is playing host to the Strategic Military Partner Conference organised by the
NATO Allied Command Transformation. Around 70 NATO member and partner states
are participating, as well as other countries, such as Colombia and Nigeria,
which are taking part in such consultations for the first time. Talks focus on
the prospects of expanding NATO partnerships and an in-depth analysis of the
concepts resulting from the NATO Summit held in Warsaw in July. The meeting in
Bucharest lasts three days and contains four planning workshops dealing with
the maritime, air and space, land and cyber domains.

Trial. The
High Court of Cassation and Justice judges have rejected all requests and
exceptions raised by Gabriel Oprea and ruled for the start of a trial on merits
in a case in which Oprea, a former deputy prime minister and interior minister,
is accused of spending operative funds from the budget of the Intelligence and
Internal Protection Directorate. The court’s ruling is not final. In May, Oprea
was indicted by the National Anticorruption Directorate for abuse of office
together with other senior officers from the Interior Ministry. Oprea is also
under investigation in a separate case in which he is accused of manslaughter.
A police officer died last year in a motorcycle accident while providing official
escort to Oprea, who was serving as interior minister. However, Oprea is
believed to have been on a personal trip at the time, which means he was not
entitled to official police escort.

Strike. Members of the
Sanitas trade union federation in the healthcare sector went on a 2-hour
warning strike this morning. During the strike, a third of normal duties were
ensured, as well as all medical and surgical emergencies. Healthcare trade
unions started their protests almost a month ago. They demand a unitary salary
scheme for all medical staff, for the bonuses for special working conditions to
be calculated based on current salaries and for holiday and meal vouchers.
Sanitas representatives say they received no offer from the authorities and
threaten to go on an all-out strike on the 31st of October. Sanitas
has more than 100,000 members, including medical and sanitary staff, specialist
staff, and auxiliary, technical and administrative staff.

No-confidence motion. Romania’s technocratic prime minister Dacian Ciolos believes justice
minister Raluca Pruna should stay in office following the passing of a simple
no-confidence motion against her in the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday. Ciolos
says the motion is a rebuke of Pruna over some of her statements, without
raising any essential objections about her activity. The motion was filed by
the Social Democrats after minister Pruna admitted she lied before the European
Court of Human Rights with respect to the funds allocated to prisons in
Romania. Pruna took responsibility for her statements saying no one can take
away her right to signal the problems facing the justice system, including
under-funding.

Migrants. 29 immigrants from Syria, including 17 minors aged between 2 and 17,
were stopped this morning by the Romanian border police in Timis as they were
trying to cross from Serbia into Romania illegally. They did not carry identity
papers but said they were Syrian nationals and that they crossed the Serbian
border on foot planning to reach a country in western Europe. This is the
largest group of Middle Eastern migrants to force the Romanian western border
in Timis county this autumn. In the last two months, the authorities have
thwarted many attempts to cross the border into Romania in the west, south-west
and south.

US elections. The third and
final presidential debate between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and
Republican nominee Donald Trump takes place tonight in Las Vegas. According to
the France Presse news agency, the topics will include foreign policy,
immigration, public debt and entitlements. Three weeks before elections,
Clinton has a significant lead in the polls of almost 7%. The first
presidential debate between Clinton and Trump held on the 26th of
September drew 84 million viewers, while the second, held on the 9th
of October, was watched by 66.5 million viewers.

Tennis. World no. 52 Monica Niculescu of Romania
today faces Italy’s Francesca Schiavone in the second round of
the Luxembourg tennis tournament worth 225,000 dollars. Another Romanian
player, Sorana Cirstea, no. 82 in the world, was defeated by the Czech player
Tereza Smitkova in the opening round on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, Romania’s
Marius Copil, ranked 198 in the world, pulled off a surprising win against
world no. 33 Joao Sousa of
Portugal in the opening round of the men’s tournament in Antwerp,
Belgium, worth almost 600,000 dollars. In the next round on Thursday, Copil
will play the winner of the match between Steve Darcis and Benoit Paire. (Translated by: C. Mateescu)