September 9, 2015 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news

Newsroom, 09.09.2015, 12:15

In his annual
State of the Union address before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the
head of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker requested EU countries to
reach an agreement on the relocation of the 160,000 refugees who arrived in
Greece, Italy and Hungary. He also called on the Europeans not to make
distinctions between the refugees based on their religion. According to Radio
Romania’s correspondent in Brussels, under the emergency relocation scheme for
refugees among the EU member states, Romania is to receive 4,646 refugees,
compared with the 1,785 initially agreed. The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan
Aurescu said the figures proposed by the European Commission would be subject
to inter-institutional analysis and that Romania prefers voluntary quotas. EU
interior ministers will meet on the 14th of September in Brussels to
discuss concrete proposals to solve the migration crisis. They will also
consider the emergency set up of registration centres in Greece and Italy.

The bill on
special pensions for former MPs was sent back to the committee for the statute
of MPs, which will have to come up with a new report by next week. On Tuesday,
the committee retained the general format of the old special pensions law, whose promulgation was rejected and which was and sent back to Parliament by president Klaus
Iohannis. On Wednesday, however, the ruling coalition criticised some of the
provisions of the law.

Romeo Florin Nicolae, the
director of Antifraud Directorate and the deputy president of the National Agency
for Fiscal Administration, is investigated by the National Anticorruption
Directorate in Ploiesti for peddling in influence. He allegedly requested and
received the equivalent in lei of 5,000 euros from the representative of a
private company to help the latter receive a favourable response to its
complaint against a notice of assessment.

The National Citizenship
Authority welcomes the government’s decision to amend the citizenship law and
simplify procedures by which Romanian citizenship can be granted to
personalities from the world of culture, sports and science. This initiative
helps consolidate Romania’s image, both directly, through the openness showed
by the state’s institutions, and indirectly, through the achievements of the
new Romanian citizens, writes a press release.

The president of the ex-Soviet, majority
Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova, Nicolae Timofti, has ruled out the
possibility of his resignation, as demanded by protesters in the centre of the
capital Chisinau. He said his resignation would trigger a new political crisis
and instability. Weak state institutions are to blame for the situation, said
Timofti, accusing the National Bank, the General Prosecutor’s Office and the
National Anti-Corruption Centre of being ineffective. Hundreds of protesters,
who put up tents in the centre of Chisinau, demand the resignation of the
president and the government, early elections and for those guilty of Moldova’s
bank fraud to be brought to justice.