The Week in Review, 24-30 June
A review of the most important events of the past week.
Mihai Pelin, 29.06.2013, 13:05
18 Romanians lost their lives in a bus accident in Montenegro
Wednesday was a day of national mourning in Romania, in memory of the 18 Romanians who lost their lives in a bus accident in Montenegro. Authorities in the former Yugoslav republic also declared Wednesday a day of national mourning out of respect for those who lost their lives and for their families. Another 29 people injured in the accident, who were initially committed to hospitals in Podgorita, were later flown back to Romania with two military airplanes and admitted to several hospitals in Bucharest. A third plane transported the dead back to Romania. With the support of the military, the scale of the medical operation conducted was unprecedented, given the complexity of the case and the large number of dead and wounded. As many as 40 physicians and nurses were mobilized to help those involved, after a bus full of Romanian tourists swayed off a bridge and crushed into a deep ravine. Authorities in Montenegro are trying to download the data in the bus’s tachograph, a device connected to the vehicle’s speed box, and from its on-board computer which stores travel information such as speed, mileage, drivers’ shifts, verifications and possible errors. The investigation carried out by the authorities in Montenegro has shown that when the bus exited a high-speed tunnel, the road was humid and the driver may have been inconvenienced by the bright sun, leading him to lose control of the bus while taking a turn. In Bucharest, prosecutors have started hearing the wounded who can give details about the circumstances of the tragic accident, the most serious one involving Romanian tourists in the past 15 years.
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta tours Central Asia
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta is on a tour of four Asian countries — Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and China. The purpose of the tour is to attract more investment to Romania. The first stop was Azerbaijan, where talks focused on the recent decision of the Shah Deniz II Consortium to opt for an alternative gas pipeline, namely the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, which is due to transport gas from Turkey to Italy via Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea. Both pipelines were aimed at reducing Europe’s dependency on Russian gas imports. Backed by the EU, Nabucco West was supposed to link Turkey to Austria via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Following its announced failure, Prime Minister Ponta said Romania would shift its focus to alternative projects carried out with Azeri authorities, such as the Azerbaijan — Georgia — Romania Interconnector (known in short as AGRI). AGRI will supply natural gas via pipelines transiting Azerbaijan and Georgia and will be liquefied in a regasification terminal on the Georgian Black Sea Coast, from where it would be shipped to Romania. Another option for Romanian authorities is to start exploiting natural and shale gas deposits in the Black Sea. Romania has an annual gas consumption of 14 billion cubic meters, of which 80% is covered by the country’s domestic output.
The IMF board has approved the latest two assessment of its precautionary agreement with Romania
The IMF board of directors has approved the latest two assessments of the precautionary agreement concluded with Romania. The IMF has thus disbursed the final installment provided for in the agreement, worth 520 billion euros. The five-billion-euro loan is a precautionary one, as Romania hasn’t accessed this reserve fund and has no intention of doing so in the future, according to Bucharest officials. Under the standby agreement Romania had pledged to cut back on its arrears to the state budget and to privatize the loss-incurring and debt-ridden Freight Division of the Romanian Railway Company. The last standby agreement was signed in March 2011, in the form of an extension of the previous 2009 agreement. Once the current agreement ended, Romanian authorities say they are already thinking of a new agreement with the international lender.
Romania’s football champions Steaua Bucharest steer clear of the tough sanctions the UEFA could slap on them for corruption
The UEFA hasn’t banned Romania’s football champions, Steaua Bucharest, from the European Cups, although the team underwent investigation on corruption allegations. However, the club has to shun any other sanctions for the following five years lest the suspended one-year penalty sentence be automatically applied. The renowned football forum has opened this file, after Steaua’s owner, George Becali was indicted for involvement in a 2008 bribe-giving case. That year Becali tried to give 1.7 million euros to the players from Universitatea Cluj as an incentive to defeat Steaua’s rivals CFR Cluj in the race for the title. In this present edition, Steaua stands good chances of making it to the Champions League’s main groups stage, and their qualification could bring Steaua 20 million euros, a sum big enough to cover the club’s expenses without any financial contribution from its owner, currently serving a prison sentence. In the Champions League’s qualifying round, on July the 16th Steaua will be facing Macedonia’s champions Vardar Skopje.
