September 30, 2014

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Valentin Țigău, 30.09.2014, 12:00

WTA 2nd seed the Romanian tennis player Simona Halep on Wednesday made headway into the eighth finals of the WTA tournament in Beijing, with 5.4 million dollars prize money at stake. Halep has snatched a win in the game against Lin Zhu of China. The Romanian gained 51, 850 dollars and 120 WTA points. In the eighth finals, Halep will be facing Andrea Petkovic of Germany. We recall Petkovic outclassed the American Madison Keys in the second round.

Romania’s General prosecutor Tiberiu Nitu today has submitted to the country’s Justice Minister Robert Cazanciuc the report whereby he was asking for the official approval to start a criminal investigation in the case of nine former ministers, following corruption crimes the nine were guilty of, during their term in office. The former nine ministers, left as well as right of center, are suspected of influence peddling, bribe-giving and taking, money laundering and abuse of office, in the so-called Miicrosoft file, pertaining to the granting of IT licenses. We’ll revert to that after the news.

Romania’s Supreme Defense Council is convening today, with the session being chaired by president Traian Basescu, the Presidential Administration has announced. High on the session’ s agenda are topics related to the risks, threats and vulnerabilities likely to target Romania in 2015. Also included on the agenda are cyber threats targeting national security as well as fighting and combating the use of the internet for terrorist purposes. Talks will also be focusing on the Romania’s presidency in 2015 of the High-Ranking Inter Ministerial Committee of the European Gendarmerie, Romanian Army’s participation in a NATO mission in Afghanistan in 2015, and Romania’s prospective contributions to the US-led coalition against the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant.

Romanian deputies are today casting their vote over the simple motion labeled The Social Democratic Party has pawned the country’s education system to gain votes. We recall last week a debate was held over the motion in the Chamber of Deputies’ plenary. The initiators of the motion, the right-of-centre opposition National Liberal and Liberal Democratic Parties have demanded that the current Education Minister Remus Pricopie should step down, and that the emergency ordinance no 49 of 2014 be withdrawn, ruling changes in the Education Law. The opposition parties have called for a fair funding policy in the case of the Romanian education system, a real decentralization process and completely doing away with politics in the education process. Among other points included in the motion are the cancellation of the third baccalaureate exam session and sorting out the school textbooks issue as soon as possible. The current Education Minister Remus Pricopie believes the aforementioned Ordinance has shed light over a series of still unclear points in the Education Law, so that the education system can become more functional and the country’s higher education institutions can set up higher education colleges with the status of post-high school programmes.

The Spanish Constitutional Court in Spain on Monday suspended the referendum on the independence of Catalonia, scheduled for November 9, thus ruling in favor of the appeal filed by the central government, opposing the vote. The Catalan nationalists however, expressed their determination to stage the referendum, against all odds. Leader Artur Mas warned that the process which has been set in motion does not end with the ruling of the Court, even if the “yes” voting will not necessarily lead up to Catalonia’s breaking away with Spain.

The Romanian Government is today holding a debate on the emergency ordinance draft law focusing on the second state budget rectification this year. The draft law published by the country’s Finance Ministry states that the Labor Ministry is the main beneficiary of the rectification, while the Government’s State Secretariat will be earmarked the most limited sum of money. Bigger sums of money will go to the Regional Development Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Senate, the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the Ombudsman, and the intelligence services. At the other end of the scale, the Finance, Agriculture and Health Ministries will be earmarked smaller sums of money. The right-of-centre opposition has criticized the fact that the government has been slashing funds initially earmarked for the Health, Education or Agriculture Ministries, rushing in extra money for the Social Democratic Party’s local administration, in the run-up to the nearing presidential elections. Prime Minister Ponta has explained that the slashing is connected to the employer’s reduced Social Insurance Contributions

At the International Court for Former Yugoslavia in the Hague, the final pleas are well under way in the case of Bosnian Serbs leader Radovan Karadzic, during the war in Former Yugoslavia. The first two days were dedicated to the prosecution, with the days of Wednesday and Thursday being offered to KaradzIc. The trial has been going on for fve years. Among the eleven counts are genocide, extermination, the massacre in Srebrenica in 1995 and the siege of the city of Sarajevo. Self-defending Karadzic has denied all accusations.

The European Parliament today continues the hearing of the candidates for the position of commissioner in the future community’s executive led by Jean Claude Juncker. Six designated commissioners today will be answering the questions of the specialist commission. On Monday, in the first day of the hearings, attention was focused on Cecilia Malmstrom, who is likely to manage the business sector. Romania’s candidate for the position of regional Policy commissioner Corina Cretu is to join the hearing session on Wednesday. According to schedule, the assessment procedure wil be drawing to a close on October, while the voting session in the European Parliament’s plenary will be held on October 22nd.

A squadron made of 23 officers and warrant officers of Romanian Air Forces in Portugal as of today will be taking part in the training courses for the piloting of F-16 aircrafts. All told, 80 Romanian military will be on a two-year training stage in Portugal. As of 2016, The Romanian Army is to purchase the F-16, replacing the still-in-use MIG-21 Lancer aircrafts.

Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice is today ruling over the file where the mayor of the central Romanian town of Sibiu Klaus Johannis has been declared incompatible by the country’s National Integrity Agency. The Agency has been accusing Johannis of concurrently holding the position of mayor and that of municipality representative in the board of two companies. Previously, another institution had denied the report submitted by the National Integrity Agency, but the latter institution filed an appeal in court. The Romanian law stipulates that natural persons who were declared incompatible are no longer entitled to holding a public position for three years. We recall Johannis is the candidate of the National Liberal and the Liberals Democratic Party’s Christian–Liberal Alliance for the presidential elections due in November. According to a voting intentions survey, Johannis is highly likely to be the most serious contender of current Social-Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta for the presidential runoff’s second ballot. All told, 14 hopefuls have submitted their candidacies at the Central Electoral Bureau.