August 27, 2015 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news ...

Newsroom, 27.08.2015, 12:15

During these
difficult times, we feel Romania’s support, and currently there are optimum
conditions for a close rapprochement between the governments and peoples on the
two banks of the River Prut, said Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti during a
meeting with Romanian PM Victor Ponta, who went to Chisinau on Thursday on
Moldova’s independence day. The two officials talked about the European road of
the former Soviet republic, about regional developments and the situation in
Transdniestr. Prime Minister Ponta also met with his counterpart Valeriu
Strelet, who stressed the strategic
partnership between the two countries
and thanked Romania for its support. The two officials signed an
agreement under which Romania and the Republic of Moldova extended by 2020 the
implementation of the 100 million Euro worth of financial assistance granted by
Bucharest.

Romania is not faced with high pressure
from the increasing wave of migrants along the Western Balkans, said in
Bucharest on Thursday the vice-Premier for national security and interior
minister Gabriel Oprea, at the end of the meeting of the National Committee for
Special Emergency Situations. He also said though that Romanian authorities
decided to tighten security measures on the border with Serbia. At the meeting,
attended by representatives of over 20 institutions, a decision was made for
the competent state institutions to monitor any change in the situation in the
region and thus gradually adapt national security measures, in keeping with the
latest developments. Currently there are six regional accommodation centers for
asylum seekers, which can accommodate approximately 1500 people. The rate of
occupancy is now 20%.

Serbia and
Macedonia called on the EU on Thursday to take action and solve the immigration
crisis. The summit in Vienna, attended
by leaders from the Western Balkans and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
stressed the fact that those two countries are the most important crossing
points from the dozens of thousands of immigrants. Serbia has announced it will
not close its borders for the refugees, even if Hungary has been tightening
border security and is now working on a controversial protection wall. In
Budapest, authorities get more worried by the day, as a new record was registered on Wednesday: over 3,400. Berlin
estimates that this year it would receive 800 thousand asylum seekers, four
times more than last year and calls on its partners to ensure a balanced
distribution within the European area. Waves of refugees hit the Greek islands
every day, many of whom are trying to reach western Europe, Germany in
particular, by transiting Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria.

Ukraine’s
free trade and association agreement with the EU will come into force on
January 1st, 2016, announced in Brussels on Thursday the European Commission
President Jean – Claude Juncker, after a meeting with the Kiev leader, Petro
Porosenko. He also held talks with the president of the European Council,
Donald Tusk, who voiced worries over the escalation of violence in Eastern
Ukraine. Tusk said it was important that Ukraine and the separatists agreed to
make efforts and cease fire completely as of September 1st. Petro Porosenko
came to Brussels after the Ukrainian Government and the private lenders reached
an agreement on restructuring the country’s debt, which is a crucial step
towards unblocking emergency funding.

Mohammad
Munaf, who in 2008 was sentenced to 10 years in prison for acts of terrorism
committed against Romanian citizens, is now in Romanian police custody,
announced on Thursday Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis. He said that Munaf
was finally caught as a result of the cooperation between all the Romanian
state institutions, under the coordination of the country’s Higher Defense
Council. In 2008, the Bucharest Court of Appeal sentenced Mohammad Munaf to 10
years in prison for his involvement in the kidnapping of three Romanian
journalists in Iraq. Also, the court ruled that he had to pay 2 million Euros worth
of damages to the three journalists. Munaf is an Iraqi born settled in Romania
and has double citizenship, Iraqi and American. In late March 2005 he was the
three journalists’ guide in Iraq, and was held hostage for 55 days, just like
the Romanians. Upon their release, Munaf was taken by the US forces in Iraq,
who accused him of complicity to kidnapping. In October 2006, the Central
Criminal Tribunal in Baghdad sentenced him to death by hanging, by the Iraqi
Court of Cassation suspended the sentence.