October 28, 2015 UPDATE

Some of the main stories in Romania today

Newsroom, 28.10.2015, 12:15

The Chamber of Deputies, Romanian Parliament’s
decision-making body, on Wednesday passed the postal voting bill with a large
majority. On Tuesday, a parliamentary committee made a number of amendments to
the bill. One change refers to the fact that the postal voting system will only
be used in next year’s parliamentary elections and not also in the presidential
and European elections, as stipulated in the initial version of the bill
approved last week. Both the ruling coalition and the opposition have given assurances
that similar provisions will be drafted for the presidential elections. The
bill will next be submitted to the president to be signed into law. The idea to
introduce the postal voting system emerged after the organisational problems
that appeared during the presidential elections last November.

The Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday rejected the request by the
National Anticorruption Directorate to approve the pre-trial arrest of MP Elena
Udrea, but approved a request for her detention as part of a new corruption
case. Udrea is accused of receiving bribe of almost 4 million dollars from a
businessman to help him earn a contract with Hidrolectrica while she was
serving as a minister. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided that Udrea would
still be subject to legal restrictions pending trial as part of a different
case known as the Bute Boxing Gala. She was indicted in this case in April
for bribe taking, abuse of office and attempt to use false documents and
statements, alongside a number of other persons, including the former economy
minister Ion Ariston and the former president of the Romanian Boxing Federation
Rudel Obreja.

Romania’s prime minister Victor Ponta is paying a two-day
visit to Mexico, where he will meet president and also head of the Mexican
government Enrique Pena Nieto and will attend the Open Government Partnership
Global Summit in Mexico City. Talks will focus on political and economic
cooperation, cooperation in the field of culture and education and the
prospects for upgrading the agreement between the European Union and Mexico.
Prime Minister Ponta will also meet Mexican high-ranking officials and
businesspeople, the government in Bucharest has announced. His visit, the first
by a Romanian prime minister to Mexico in the last 25 years, takes place at a
time when Romania and Mexico celebrate 80years of diplomatic ties.
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral initiative launched by the US
and seven other states in 2011, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu,
who is on a two-day trip to Spain, had talks on Wednesday with his counterpart
Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo y Marfil about the further consolidation of the
political dialogue between the two states and the expansion of economic
cooperation. According to the Romanian foreign ministry, bilateral trade
accounted for 3 billion euros last year. Bogdan Aurescu also emphasised the
contribution of the Romanian community, the largest of Spain’s foreign
communities, to that country’s development. Also on Wednesday, the two foreign
ministers attended an event on preventing and fighting violent extremism, when
they presented a Romanian-Spanish initiative on the establishment of an
international court for terrorism.

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis will host a top-level meeting of
states in Central and Eastern Europe to be held on the 4th of
November in Bucharest. According to a press release from the president’s
office, the meeting will be attended by the presidents of Bulgaria, Poland,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Slovakia, the speaker of the Chamber of
Deputies in the Czech Republic and the NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander
Vershbow. According to Radio Romania’s News Channel, the participants in the
summit wish to send a common message with regard to NATO’s adjustment to the
current security environment.

In 2015, Romania ranks 37th out
of 189 countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2016 report. According to
this source, starting a business in Romania takes eight days and requires five
procedures. Romania is ahead of countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, Belgium,
Italy and Turkey, and behind states like the Czech Republic, Japan, Slovenia
and Slovakia. Singapore, New Zealand and Denmark are first on ease of doing business.
The World Bank’s report looks at 189 economies based on 11 criteria such as
starting a business, getting credit, getting electricity and trading across
borders. The report does not look at aspects such as security, macroeconomic
stability and corruption.

The
speaker of the Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest Valeriu Zgonea attended a
meeting on the fight against terrorism financing as part of the third edition
of the parliamentary forum on security and information in Washington. On
Tuesday, on the sidelines of the forum, Valeriu Zgonea had talks with US
officials during which he emphasised that the expansion of the strategic
partnership with the US is a major priority for Romania’s foreign and security
policy.

World no. 2 Simona Halep of Romania on Thursday faces the
Polish player Agnieszka Radwanska in her final Round Robin Red Group match at
the WTA Finals under way in Singapore. If she wins, Halep will qualify for the
semifinals. In her previous matches, she defeated Italy’s Flavia Pennetta 6-0,
6-3 and lost to Russia’s Maria Sharapova 4-6, 4-6. The WTA Finals are worth
seven million dollars in prize money and bring together the world’s top 8
players. According to the WTA rankings made public on Monday, Halep is more
than 4,000 points behind world no. 1 Serena Williams and 1,200 points ahead of
the Spaniard Garbine Muguruza, who is ranked third.