July 11-17

A look at the headline-making events this past week

Newsroom, 16.07.2016, 13:55

Reactions after
Nice attacks

Romania stands by
France, hit by a new terror attack right on its national holiday. Tens of
people were killed on the night of July 14, when a lorry ploughed through the
crowd gathered for the Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, in the south-east of the
country. In Bucharest, President Iohannis firmly condemned the attack and said
the scourge of terrorism must be fought, violence must be stopped and this can
only be done if we stand united against those who have no justification for
their crimes. President Klaus Iohannis sent condolences to the victims’
families and wished strength to the wounded. The Nice attack, coming eight
months after the Jihadist attacks of November in Paris, when 130 people died,
was also condemned by the UN Security Council, and by the EU leaders who had
just returned from the EU-Asia Summit in Mongolia. The head of the European
Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, released a statement, shortly after the event,
expressing his solidarity with the French people. France can count on the
European Commission, he said, so that together with other member states we may
fight against terrorism. In the US, President Barack Obama also expressed
solidarity with France, which he called America’s oldest ally. An Interior
Ministry task force has been put together in Paris, and President Francois
Hollande announced a further three-month extension of the state of emergency
that was due to end in two weeks. He also announced the calling up of army
reserves to back the army and gendarme troops.

PM Ciolos on
official visit to Vietnam and Mongolia

PM Dacian Ciolos
was on an official visit to Vietnam as of Monday. The visit was intended to
renew the traditional friendship between the two countries, with special
emphasis on stepping up bilateral cooperation and trade. Apart from bilateral
talks with the President, Prime Minister and other senior officials of Vietnam,
PM Dacian Ciolos also attended the Romanian-Vietnamese Economic Forum in Hanoi,
together with more than 20 representatives of the Romanian business community,
to identify new business opportunities with Vietnamese partners and to take
full advantage of the future EU-Vietnam free trade agreement. The Romanian
authorities did not focus exclusively on the economic dimension, but also
discussed ways to strengthen the cultural and educational relations, Dacian
Ciolos said, and added that in the forthcoming academic year the number of
scholarships for the students who wish to study in Romania would double. From
Hanoi, the Prime Minister travelled to Mongolia, to attend the EU-Asia Summit
on July 15 and 16. Bucharest’s message in this Summit consisted in a review of
the elements that make Romania a key point for connecting Europe and Asia,
whether in terms of transport infrastructure, energy or communications.

Negotiations on
Canada’s potential visa waiver program for Romanians

On Monday in
Brussels, Canada confirmed it would announce its decision regarding a visa
waiver program for Romanians and Bulgarians early this autumn. Romanian and
Bulgarian representatives talked about the issue with the Canadian Immigration
Minister John McCallum, in the presence of the European Commissioner for
Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos. In April, both Canada and the US got an
additional three-month deadline to get in line with the EU policy regarding
visa granting reciprocity, which provides that the countries whose citizens do
not need visas to travel to the EU must in their turn allow the same freedom of
movement for all the EU citizens. Currently Canada requires visas for Romanian
and Bulgarian citizens, and the US has a mandatory visa regime in place for
five countries, including Romania. Romania and Bulgaria have announced they
will not ratify the EU’s trade agreement with Canada unless the visa issue is
solved.

New judges at the
Constitutional Court

As of Wednesday,
Romania’s Constitutional Court has a new President for a three year term, Valer
Dorneanu, as well as three new judges who will stay in office until 2025. A
Social-Democrat MP between 2000 and 2008, Valer Dorneanu was for four years
Speaker of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies. He has been a Constitutional Court
judge since 2013, and since June 2016, when the term in office of his
predecessor Augustin Zegrean ended, he has acted as interim President of the
Court. The former president has stated
that his nine-year term was extremely intense, sometimes reaching as many as
10,000 cases per year.

A new law for
hypermarkets in Romania

According to a law
recently promulgated by Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis, 51% of the
merchandise sold by hypermarkets in Romania must be provided by local
producers. The law stipulates that the big retail chains in Romania must have
on their shelves produce from the so-called ‘short supply chain’, meaning from
local or regional sources. The exceptions include exotic fruit and vegetables,
as well as seasonal produce. The big retailers say that this will by no means
solve the issues facing the Romanian producers of foodstuffs, but will only
severely affect the food trade balance.