September 30, 2014 UPDATE

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România Internațional, 30.09.2014, 12:05

DEFENCE — The Superior Defence Council met on Tuesday in a session chaired by president Traian Basescu. The agenda of talks focused on the risks, threats and vulnerabilities targeting Romania in 2015, cyber crime, national security and combating cyber terrorism. The meeting also addressed the Romanian presidency of the High-Ranking Interministerial Committee of the European Security Force in 2015, Romania’s participation in NATO-led operations in Afghanistan in 2015 and possible contributions to the US-led military operation targeting the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant.

BUDGET — The Romanian Government on Tuesday adopted the second budget rectification for 2014. The Labour Ministry will be the main beneficiary, while the General Secretariat of the Government will see most cuts. Larger sums of money will go to the Ministry of Regional Development, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Senate, the Higher Court of Cassation and Justice, the Ombudsman and special services. At the other end, the Ministries of Finance and Agriculture will see their budgets cut. The centre-right opposition has accused the Government of earmarking additional funds to the Social-Democrat-led local administration in the run-up to the presidential election of November. Prime Minister Victor Ponta explained the rectification is mostly triggered by the reduction of the social security contributions for employers.

ELECTION — Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice on Tuesday ruled in favour of the appeal over the file where the mayor of the central Romanian town of Sibiu Klaus Iohannis has been declared incompatible by the country’s National Integrity Agency. The Agency is accusing Iohannis 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 public office for three years. We recall Iohannis is the candidate of the National Liberal and the Liberal Democratic Party’s Christian–Liberal Alliance for the presidential elections due in November. According to a voting intentions survey, Iohannis is highly likely to be the most serious contender to current Social-Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta for the presidential runoff’s second ballot. A total of 14 hopefuls have submitted their candidacies at the Central Electoral Bureau.

MICROSOFT — Romanian Prosecutor General Tiberiu Nitu on Tuesday referred the report of the National Anticorruption Directorate requesting approval for starting criminal proceedings against 9 former ministers to Justice Minister Robert Cazanciuc. During their terms in office, the 9 are being accused of several acts of corruption. Belonging to parties on both sides of the political spectrum, the nine are facing allegations of influence peddling, bribe giving and bribe taking, money laundering and abuse of office in the investigation of Microsoft licenses.

MOTION — Romanian MPs have rejected the simple motion filed by the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Liberal Party in opposition entitled “the Social-Democratic Party sells off education in exchange of votes”. The opposition is calling for the resignation of Education Minister Remus Pricopie and the withdrawal of Emergency Ordinance 49 of 2014, whereby the Education Law is amended. The opposition also calls for the actual decentralization and depoliticization of Romanian education, discarding the third session of the Romanian Baccalaureate and the immediate resolution of the issue of school textbooks. Education Minister Remus Pricopie says the ordinance regulates several discrepancies in the Education Law to streamline the system, allowing higher education units to set up colleges as undergraduate programmes.

HEARING — The European Parliament on Tuesday continued the hearing of the candidates for the position of commissioner in the future community’s executive led by Jean Claude Juncker. Six designated commissioners answered the questions of the specialist committee. 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 will be drawing to a close on October, while the voting session in the European Parliament’s plenary will be held on October 22nd.

MISSION — A squadron made up of 23 officers and warrant officers of Romanian Air Forces in Portugal as of Tuesday will be taking part in the training courses for the piloting of F-16 aircraft. A total of 80 Romanian military will be on a two-year training stage in Portugal. As of 2016, the Romanian Army is to purchase F-16 fighter jets, replacing the still-in-use MIG-21 Lancer aircraft.

TENNIS — WTA 2nd ranked the Romania tennis player Simona Halep on Tuesday has 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. Also on Tuesday, in the doubles competition, Romanian Horia Tecau and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands qualified to the quarterfinals after brushing aside Temuraz Gabashvilyi of Russia and Mikhail Kukushyn of Kazakhstan. Tecau and Rojer will go up against Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and John Isner of the United States in the next round.

AGREEMENTS — The new Afghan Government on Tuesday signed two security agreements allowing the United States and NATO forces to maintain its troops in the region, after the scheduled withdrawal of all Allied forces at the end of 2014. Some 12,000 NATO military, of which 10,000 Americans will stay in Afghanistan after the end of combat operations. The signing of the agreements occurs within a day after Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as President of Afghanistan. Former president Hamid Karzai refused to sign such an agreement, which worsened relations between Kabul and Washington.

REFERENDUM IN SPAIN — The Government of Catalonia on Tuesday called off the campaign for the referendum of November 9, when the country was to decide on the autonomy of this Spanish region. The decision comes after the Constitutional Court on Monday suspended the referendum and ruled in favour of the challenge filed by the Spanish Government. Catalonian nationalist leader Artur Mas has warned that the process set in motion does not end with the decision of the Court, even though a successful referendum would not automatically grant Catalonia its independence.