25 June, 2015
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 25.06.2015, 12:03
Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis is attending in Brussels the summer meeting of the European Council. The agenda of talks covers issues such as migration, European security and defence, economic growth, competitiveness and employment, the head of state has announced. The EU leaders will also debate the crisis in Greece and will discuss the renegotiation of the relationship between Great Britain and the EU. The participants will also tackle the European Commission’s proposal regarding the digital single market. The report on the completion of Europe’s economic and monetary union, recently drafted by the EC in collaboration with the European Council, the European Central Bank, the Eurogroup and the European Parliament will also be presented at the meeting, Romania president Iohannis has also said.
Romanian deputy Sebastian Ghita, who is being prosecuted for corruption, is now forbidden to carry out his responsibilities as member of parliament, after the prosecutors came up with new charges against him. Sebastian Ghita, who is very close to Prime Minister Victor Ponta, is prosecuted in a case involving a contract co-funded from European money for the extension of the sewerage network in Prahova county, in southern Romania. Several politicians and business people are also involved, among whom the prime-minister’s brother-in-law, Iulian Hertanu. On Wednesday, the prosecutors announced Sebastian Ghita was to be prosecuted for other acts of corruption as well, namely influence peddling, tax evasion, money laundering, accessory to detouring the destination of EU money and corrupting voters at the 2012 parliamentary elections and at the 2014 presidential elections. Sebastian Ghita claims he is innocent, and that his case was built for political reasons. He says he’s been constantly pressured and threatened, the real target being the resignation of prime-minister Ponta.
The head of the Allied Joint Force Command Naples, the US Admiral Mark Ferguson, is today attending the Trident Joust 15 exercise in Romania, at the Cincu range in Brasov county. As part of this exercise, NATO command units have been temporarily deployed in Romania, and, also as a first, the command and control of NATO’s Response Force has been transferred to a temporary location, in this case to Romania. Trident Joust started on June 17th and will last until Sunday, involving the participation of 1000 soldiers from 25 NATO member countries.
The Eurogroup is to convene again in Brussels this afternoon, for the third time this week, to find solutions to the Greek crisis, as last night the Eurozone finance ministers failed to reach an agreement. The meeting was attended by representatives of the EC, the IMF and the ECB. The Greek government needs financial aid to pay its debt by the end of the month. In order to solve the debt crisis, the Greek authorities have proposed the implementation of economic policies that would not affect the poorer layers of society, but its creditors have not accepted these proposals. The Eurogroup’s decision is to be submitted to the EU heads of state and government who have gathered in Brussels for a two-day summit. According to Eurostat, last year Greece had the highest debt level in the whole of the EU, namely over 177%. Unless it reaches an agreement with its creditors by June 30th, Greece runs the risk of default on payment and leaving the Eurozone.
The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has today warned about the risk of heavy clashes being resumed in eastern Ukraine, where the truce signed in February has been constantly broken. Stoltenberg has recalled Russia’s role in this conflict, saying that Moscow keeps supporting and training the separatists, supplying them weapons and solders. Despite the peace agreements in Minsk, violence escalated again in early June, after the separatists started an offensive against the town of Mariinka, near Donetsk, which is under the control of the government forces. In the past few days, the number of clashes has dropped, but fighting continues in the area. Since March 2014, the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed over 6 thousand 5 hundred lives.
The US president Barack Obama has assured his French counterpart, Francois Hollande, that the US observes its commitment to not intercepting the communication of world leaders following information in the media according to which the Americans allegedly monitored for years the French heads of state. On Wednesday, Francois Hollande summoned the Defence Council for an emergency meeting and termed as inadmissible the espionage activities carried out by the National Security Agency — NSA. On Tuesday, the WikiLeaks website published information according to which the NSA spied on Francois Hollande and the former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac, since 2006 until May 2012, when Holland took over the presidential office. We recall that in November 2013, after the former NSA collaborator Snowden talked about the US’s electronic espionage programs, the United States committed to putting an end to such practices, regarded as unacceptable by the allies.
