October 11, 2015 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news

Newsroom, 11.10.2015, 12:15

More than 530,000 Social Democratic Party members cast
their ballots on Sunday to elect a new leader. Since July, the party has been
led by interim president Liviu Dragnea, who is in fact the only candidate to
become the leader of the Social Democratic Party, the largest member of the
ruling coalition in Romania. The former leader of the party, Romania’s prime
minister Victor Ponta stepped down as party leader amidst a corruption scandal. He is on trial for forgery, complicity in tax evasion and money laundering. Liviu Dragnea himself received a one-year suspended prison sentence in May from a court of
first instance for fraud during the 2012 referendum on the impeachment of the
then president Traian Basescu.

The Romanian education ministry and trade unions in the education system
will have final talks on Monday to establish by how much teachers’ salaries
will go up. Education minister Sorin Cimpeanu said in a television interview
that salaries may increase again as of December 1st, having first
went up by 5% in March and again by 5% last month. According to Sorin Cimpeanu,
salaries in the education system should grow gradually in the next 4 years to
make the system attractive for young graduates. In another development, the
education ministry plans to reform the school curriculum between 2017 and 2020
to shift the focus from the assimilation of information to the acquisition of
skills.

A technical mission of the International Monetary Fund will travel to
Bucharest to discuss next year’s budget and the possibility to sign a new
agreement with Romania, as the Fund has recently made an upward revision of the
country’s economic forecast. The GDP is thus expected to grow by 3.4% this year
and by 3.9% in 2016. Romania’s fourth consecutive agreement with the
International Monetary Fund, of a precautionary-type and worth 2 billion euros,
expired last month without Romania having had to make use of the available
funds. Finance minister Eugen Teodorovici recently said Romania would
officially request a new agreement with the Fund.

From Monday to Thursday, military from the Romanian Navy
Forces are carrying out exercises in the Black Sea international waters
together with military from the Bulgarian, American and Ukrainian navy. The
Romanian frigate Queen Marie will have on board a Puma Naval helicopter and a
special operations forces group. The air forces will contribute to the exercise
with two MiG 21 Lancer planes. The US will bring a USS Porter destroyer and a
maritime patrol aircraft, while Bulgaria and Ukraine will each take part with a
frigate. According to a release by the Romanian Navy, the exercises form part
of a US support programme for its NATO allies and partners in Eastern Europe.

Thousands of people paid tribute on Sunday to the victims
of Saturday’s twin attack in Ankara, the deadliest in Turkey’s history, with
more than 95 people killed. They also blamed the government for escalating
tensions three weeks before early parliamentary elections. The bombs went off
near Ankara’s central station, where people had gathered to take part in a
rally calling for an end to the conflict between the Turkish state and the
Workers’ Party in Kurdistan, the PKK. With no group claiming responsibility,
the Turkish government said the Islamic State group or the PKK could have
carried out the bombing. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis said Romania firmly
condemned the criminal attacks in Ankara and reiterated his country’s full
support for Turkey.

Romania’s rugby team on Sunday lost to Italy 32-22 their
last match at the Rugby World Cup hosted by England and Wales, thus failing to
book their ticket for the next edition of the World Cup. Romania also lost to
Ireland and France and won against Canada, when they recovered from 15-0 down
to beat Canada 17-15 and complete the biggest comeback in World Cup history.