September 18, 2015 UPDATE

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Corina Cristea, 18.09.2015, 12:30

Romanian President, Klaus
Iohannis, will participate on September 23rd in a special European
Council summit to be held in Brussels, official sources announced on Friday.
The summit was called by Germany in the context of the migrants’ crisis, one
day after a special meeting of the EU interior ministers on the same
issue. President Iohannis reiterated
Bucharest’s commitment to taking in 1,785 refugees, although the European
Commission wants Romania to provide shelter to a triple number of
refugees. Alongside Romania another 9
EU states are rejecting mandatory quotas.

The IMF representative for Romania and Bulgaria, Guillermo Tolosa,
says that in the next 3 years Romania is likely to compete, from an economic
point view, with European states such as Greece, the Czech Republic and
Portugal if it has fiscal stability and manages to attract investments mainly
in infrastructure. The IMF official confirmed, on the other hand, that the
Romanian government paid off its duty to the IMF. Out of the present stand-by
loan concluded with the international creditors, due to expire later this
month, Romania still has to pay back over 4.8 billion euros to the World Bank
and the European Commission. PM Victor Ponta has recently said that Bucharest
no longer needs loans from the IMF and the European Commission, adding that in
a period of turmoil in the region and in Europe, concluding agreements with
these institutions is a good thing.

Romania’s new ambassador to the USA, George Maior, on Thursday
presented his credentials to US president Barack Obama as part of a ceremony
held at the White House. Maior said that Romania had a firm commitment to
improving the business environment, which is vital for attracting American
investments and boosting trade exchanges. The Romanian diplomat added that the
strategic partnership with the US was a basic pillar for Romania’s foreign and
security policy and said that the support granted by the US helped Romania in
the process of democratization, observing human rights and the rule of law.

The High Court of Cassation and Justice in
Bucharest has set Monday as the first day in the trial of Romania’s Prime
Minister Social-Democrat Victor Ponta and his party colleague, senator Dan
Sova, who were indicted on corruption charges by the National Anti-corruption
Agency DNA. Ponta is facing several charges such as forgery, conspiracy to
commit tax evasion and money laundering in a case related to the investigation
into legal council contracts at the Turceni and Rovinari power plants. These
illegal acts were committed at a time when Ponta was working as a lawyer before
his mandate as a Prime Minister. Former transport minister Dan Sova is being
investigated for abuse of office. The DNA on Friday called on the Higher
Council of the Magistrates to investigate whether Ponta’s latest sayings
against the magistrate working on his file are affecting the independence of
the judiciary. Ponta has written on a social network that the prosecutor
investigating him is obsessed to advance his career coming up with false facts
and situations allegedly occurring 10 years ago. In another development the
liberal opposition announced its intention to file a no-confidence vote against
the lack of credibility of the present government caused by the Prime
Minister’s legal issues.

On Friday Croatia began transporting
migrants on its territory to the border with Hungary. The authorities in Zagreb
on Thursday closed down 8 border check points with neighboring Serbia. Over 14
thousand people have crossed into Croatia since Wednesday. This has become the
refugees’ new route on their way to Western Europe after the closing down of
the Serbian-Hungarian border following clashes between refugees and the
Hungarian riot police. Hungary started building up a fence at the common border
with Croatia, similar to the one at the Serbian border in order to prevent
migrants from entering its territory.