September 30, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 30.09.2020, 20:22

COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreaks are spreading in Romania,
particularly in care centers and in hospitals. The number of schools resorting
to exclusively online classes is also on the rise. According to the latest
official report, 2,158 new cases and 33 new deaths were reported in the past 24
hours. So far, 4,825 COVID-19 patients have died in Romania, and more than
127,500 people have tested positive. Prime Minister Ludovic
Orban said on Wednesday that he called on the county committees for emergency
situations to show a much more serious involvement in the implementation of the
legal measures adopted by the authorities, to carry out control and
communication actions for citizens to comply with health protection measures in
the context of the pandemic.

ELECTIONS Police and prosecutors carry on investigations in a
criminal case initiated after on Sunday a Social Democrat running for a local
councilor post was caught by representatives of Save Romania-PLUS Alliance with
nearly 500 official reports from polling stations. The candidate backed by the
Liberals and Save Romania-PLUS Alliance, MEP Clotilde Armand, said she would
request the General Prosecutor’s Office to take over the investigation. The
acting Sector 1 mayor, the Social Democrat Dan Tudorache, said he also
requested the Bureau to do a vote recount. According to centralized data,
Clotilde Armand has won the election with 40.95%, while Dan Tudorache got
39.82% of the votes. In Bucharest, the independent candidate Nicuşor Dan,
backed by the Liberals and Save Romania-PLUS Alliance, secured some 43% of the
votes for General Mayor of Bucharest. At national level, partial results point
to major changes in the administration of county capitals. The Liberals, in
power, have won 15 county capitals, the Social Democrats in opposition 14, and
Save Romania-PLUS Alliance and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians 4
each. As for county councils, the Social Democrats won 20, the Liberals
17, and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians 4.

COURT The Constitutional Court of Romania has dismissed an
objection raised by the President and Government against a bill authorizing
Parliament to set the date of this year’s parliamentary elections. The current
bill is therefore deemed in line with the constitution, and president Iohannis
is either to sign it into law, or to send it back to Parliament for a review.
Meanwhile, in keeping with current legislation, the Liberal government decided
on Friday that the parliamentary election will be held on December 6. Until its
publication in the Official Journal, the bill tabled by the opposition parties,
the Social Democrats, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and ALDE, is
not in force. If this happens, which specialists say is no longer possible
because there is not enough time, it will be for the first time in 30 years
that the date of general elections in Romania is set by Parliament and not by
the Government.

JUSTICE
The President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, met, on
Wednesday, with the Minister of Justice Cătălin Predoiu and with the Prime
Minister Ludovic Orban. According to the head of state, the talks focused on bills
to correct the justice laws. Klaus Iohannis said that fair justice and equality
before the law were the essential pillars of a genuine democracy. He said there
had been a counter-reform in recent years that had
upset the justice system. Iohannis mentioned some values ​​of the
judiciary that should be promoted: independence, professionalism, impartiality
and meritocracy. In turn, the Minister of Justice, Cătălin Predoiu, announced a
public debate, until March 31, 2021, on the proposals to amend the Justice
Laws: the Law on the Status of Judges
and Prosecutors, the Law on Judicial Organization and the Law on the Superior
Council of Magistracy. Predoiu said that among the proposed amendments are the dismantling
of the Section for the Investigation of Crimes in the Judiciary, the
professionalization of the magistrates’ selection process, the elimination of
non-competitive employment, the elimination of the early retirement scheme for
magistrates, the strengthening of the principle of prosecutors’ independence
and the elimination of restrictions regarding the freedom of expression of
magistrates. We recall that, in August, the head of state asked the Minister of
Justice to correct the justice laws, which, in his opinion, had been ‘trimmed
by the Social Democratic Party”, the former ruling party.

COMMITMENT In 2020, the Romanian
Government continued to affirm its commitment to restore the pace of justice
reform after the drawbacks of 2017-2019 and this led to a significant reduction
of tensions in the judicial system, according to the first report of the
European Commission on the rule of law in the EU, presented in Brussels on Wednesday.
The document recalls that, since Romania’s joining the EU in 2007, justice and
anti-corruption reforms have been monitored by the Commission through the
Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), an important framework for
meeting the four
established conditionalities. The report stresses that Romania has a
comprehensive national strategic anti-corruption framework, based on the broad
participation of local and national institutional players. According to the
document, the ongoing amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal
Procedure increase the uncertainty related to the efficiency of the
anti-corruption legal framework, and therefore it is important to find
political and legal solutions to respond to key decisions of the Constitutional
Court.

CONFLICT The Romanian
Foreign Ministry announces that Romanian embassies in Erevan and Baku are
prepared to provide consular assistance to Romanian citizens in the conflict in
the region. Romanian citizens are urged to be cautious and to seek information
in official sources as regards possible changes in travel conditions in the 2
countries. The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) called on Azerbaijan and
Armenia to refrain from any measures, especially military ones, that might
infringe upon civilians’ rights. Clashes between Azeri and Armenian troops over
the Nagorno-Karabakh region continue, in spite of an appeal for cease-fire and
negotiations coming from the UN Security Council. According to official data,
98 people, mostly Armenian separatist fighters and , and 17 civilians on both
sides, have been killed in the past few days in the breakaway region of
Nagorno-Karabakh.

TENNIS Simona Halep (no. 2 WTA) on Wednesday defeated another
Romanian, Irina Begu (72 WTA) in the 2nd round of the Roland Garros tournament.
Also on Wednesday, in the doubles, the Romanians Andreea Mitu and Patricia Tig
defeated the pair Madison Brengle of the US and Yana Sizikova of Russia. The
Romanian – Swedish pair Ana Bogdan/Rebecca Peterson was defeated by the Check Marie
Bouzkova and the Dutch Arantxa Rus. The match between Sorana Carstea of Romania
and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain against the pair Alison Riske (USA)/Ajla
Tomljanovic (Australia) was cancelled.