October 29, 2015 UPDATE

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Roxana Vasile, 29.10.2015, 12:30

President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis,
has been notified on the dismissal of the pro-Western three-party government of
the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet republic with a Romanian-speaking
majority. President Iohannis says the country needs a stable executive to be
formed quickly so as the European progress of this country may continue.
Iohannis has reiterated Romania’s willingness to give all the support to
neighboring Moldova in this respect. In turn, Romanian Prime Minister Victor
Ponta has cautioned that Bucharest will continue to support Chisinau only if
the country is being ruled by a pro-Western coalition. The Moldovan government
led by Liberal-Democrat Valeriu Strelet has been sacked by Parliament through a
no-confidence vote initiated by the pro-Russian socialist and communist
opposition. Members of the Democratic Party, part of the ruling coalition, who
have backed the no-confidence vote, have joined the initiators accusing the
government of incompetence and corruption. According to the government, the
left-wing opposition is trying to destabilize the republic and highjack it from
its main target, European integration.

Romania has made headway in recent years in
terms of tax payment, but there is still more to be done, particularly in the
process of training taxpayers and improving services offered to them, the IMF
representative for Romania and Bulgaria, Guillermo Tolosa, said on Thursday.
According to him, in order for citizens to meet their fiscal obligations they
must have the perception that they benefit from equal treatment and the money
collected is effectively spent. Guillermo Tolosa said that 41% of Romania’s
companies are incurring losses on a yearly basis, which indicates that many
business people are either unskilled or they may elude taxes.

Romanian troops have
the possibility of training with heavy US military equipment for the first time
now, chief of staff of the Romanian ground forces, major general Dumitru
Scarlat said on Thursday. Until November 6th, over 18 hundred Romanian and 300
US soldiers are participating in a drill called Justice Sword. According to the
Defence Ministry in Bucharest over 500 pieces of equipment are being used
during the exercise, including Abrams tanks, Bradley figthing vehicles and
Paladin self-propelled howitzers. NATO tactics and procedures are being
implemented during the exercise, whose main aim is increasing interoperability
between participating structures.

The Executive Board of the Romanian Football Federation on Thursday
agreed to extend the contract of the national squad selector Anghel Iordanescu
until the end of the European Championship due over June 10th and
July 10th 2016 in France. Iordanescu has been at the helm of
Romania’s national football side since October 2014 and has coached the
Romanian eleven into qualification for Euro 2016. In another development, the
world’s second tennis player Romanian Simona Halep has failed to qualify for
the semifinals of the WTA tournament in Singapore. In her third and last game
of the so-called Red Group, Halep conceded defeat to Agnieszka Radwanska of
Poland.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta met
Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, who is also head of the executive, in
Mexico City on Thursday, the EFE Agency has announced. The meeting had as its
main objective the reiteration of the two governments’ commitments to
strengthening friendship ties, political dialogue, economic exchanges and
cooperation. Prime Minister Ponta proposed to commence negotiations for
bringing up to date the legal bilateral framework and strengthen the strategic
relations. Ponta also attended in Mexico on Wednesday the Global Summit on Open
Government Partnership, where he said that Romania is a fresh EU member and
that Bucharest is trying to meet international standards of Democracy in terms
of governance. The Romanian Prime Minister pleaded for transparency in
governing and effective public services.