September 2, 2016

Romania is in mourning for earthquake victims; Minister of the Interior resigns

Corina Cristea, 02.09.2016, 11:59

MOURNING — Today is a national day of mourning in Romania on behalf of the victims of the earthquake in Italy, in solidarity with the Italian people. All public institutions will be flying their flags at half-mast while national radio and television stations, as well as institutions of culture, will run special programs. The body of the eighth of 11 Romanians killed in the quake was returned to the country on Thursday. The last of the Romanians declared missing has been recently found alive. Five injured Romanians are still under hospital care in Italy.

INVESTIGATION — The Romanian Senate on Friday received the official request by anti-corruption prosecutors to start an investigation of Senator Gabriel Oprea, former deputy prime minister and minister of the interior, who is accused of second degree murder in the case of police officer Bogdan Gigina. The officer lost his life in a motorcycle accident while being part of the escort for the then minister. Part of the investigation was establishing if Oprea had the right to an official escort, since at the time he was attending a personal errand. According to the prosecutors, Oprea ordered the official column to run at high speed, in violation of standing procedures. This in turn is seen as leading directly to the accident that killed the escorting police officer. Stay tuned for more after the news.

VISIT — Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos meets today in Bucharest the vice-president of the EC, Jyrki Katainen, who is on an official visit to Romania. On Thursday, the two officials took part in a dialog with Romanian citizens. The discussions revolved around current topics on the EU and Romanian agenda, especially the Investment Plan for Europe, also known as the Juncker plan, which provides at least 315 billion Euro in private and public investment over three years. More after the news.

MEETING — Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu is today in Bratislava, attending the informal, Gymnich type meeting of EU foreign ministers. Talks revolve around the recent situation in Turkey, the situation in Ukraine, with a focus on implementing the Minsk Accords, as well as the EU global foreign and security policy. These informal meetings are held twice a year by the country holding the EU rotating presidency, currently Slovakia. Yesterday, the foreign minister was in Potsdam, Germany, attending the informal meeting of foreign ministers from OSCE countries. He said that one of Romanias major priorities is to solve the conflict in Transdnestr while safeguarding the sovereignty and integrity of the Republic of Moldova.

FOOTBALL – Romania’s national football side on Saturday leaves for Cluj, in central Romania, to take on Montenegro in their first match of the World Cup 2018 preliminaries. Romania is part of a group which also includes Poland, Denmark, Armenia and Kazahstan. The game against Montenegro also represents the debut match of a selection with Cristoph Daum at the helm. The German coach is the first foreign national to lead the Romanian national eleven, replacing Anghel Iordanescu. We recall that Romania’s national selection, coached by Iordanescu, ended up at the bottom of group A in the European championship in France, with a single point. Our footballers obtained a one-all draw against Switzerland, and lost to France and Albania.

TENNIS — Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu, 58th seeded, plays today against Danish player Caroline Wozniacki (74th seeded), contending for a place in the US Open eighth finals, the years last Grand Slam competition, with over 22 million dollars in prize money up for grabs. Yesterday, Romanian powerhouse Simona Halep, 5th seeded, qualified to the third round of the tournament after defeating Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, 44th seeded. In the next game, Halep faces off against Timea Babos of Hungary, 34th seeded. The Romanian double Irina Begu- Raluca Olaru was eliminated yesterday by the Latvian-German double Jelena Ostapenko- Andrea Petkovic. In the mens doubles, the Romanian-Dutch pair Horia Tecau/Jean-Julien Rojer went to the second round after defeating the German-Austrian pair Florian Mayer- Julian Knowle.

GAS — Romanian producers and distributors of natural gas, starting next year, will be under obligation to trade on the stock market at least 40% of the quantities they sell. According to Energy Minister Victor Grigorescu, failure to do so will result in high fines, calculated as a portion of their turnover. He announced that amendments will be brought to the law regulating natural gas and electricity, possibly this month. Prices will thus become more transparent, with more players coming on the market, which will result in better prices for consumers, said Grigorescu. According to analysts, this will be a significant reform of the system, considering that right now 98.5% of gas is sold under bilateral contracts, which are already illegal on the electricity market.

(Translated by Calin Cotoiu)