December 3, 2015

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 03.12.2015, 12:15

This year, nine foreign citizens suspected of actions
related to terrorism have been declared ‘personae non gratae’ and expelled from
the country at the proposal of the Romanian Intelligence Service, according to
the spokesman for the Service. Another 246 people have not been allowed access
to the country this year, as they presented potential risks. The citizens who
were not allowed access to the country were mostly from Iraq, Palestine,
Morocco, Tunis and Syria, and some 70% them are known to have been connected to
the Islamic State terrorist organization. The Romanian Intelligence Service has
stated that, given the current security background in Europe, the level of
terrorism threat according to the National Terrorism Threat Advisory System is
‘guarded-blue’. The service is cooperating with both national and international
partners in helping enforce the measures aimed at protecting democratic
values.

The
Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu is participating in Belgrade in the
22nd OSCE Ministerial Council. This is the main annual event of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which gathers foreign
ministers and high-ranking officials from the 57 countries members of the
organization, as well as representatives of the partner countries. According to
the Foreign Ministry, Romania will keep promoting the full implementation of
the principles of and commitments made under all three dimensions of the OSCE:
the politico-military, the economic and environmental and the human.

The Romanian Senate has endorsed in plenary session the request made by
the National Anticorruption Directorate to place in temporary police custody
the Social Democrat Senator Dan Sova. Sova has stated there is no piece of
evidence against him and he is not a public danger, therefore the measure of
him being held in detention cannot be justified. The anticorruption prosecutors
have accused Sova of influence peddling in a case concerning legal consultancy
agreements with the Govora thermal powerplant, which cost the state over one
million Euros. In March, the Senate rejected another request filed by the
National Anticorruption Directorate for the arrest of Dan Sova, as he was
accused of corruption in cases involving the energy compounds of Rovinari and
Turceni. In another move, the Legal Commission of the Chamber of Deputies on
Wednesday endorsed the National Anticorruption Directorate’s request to place
under preventive detention the Liberal MPs Ioan Oltean and Catalin Teodorescu,
who are also being prosecuted for corruption. The final decision in their case
will be made in plenary Chamber of Deputies session next week.

The 2016 draft
state budget is on the Romanian Government’s agenda today. Prime Minister
Dacian Ciolos has stated that indexing pensions by 5% and raising salaries in
the public sector by 10% are measures included in the budget. The main fiscal
measures due to come into force next year are the reduction of the VAT from 24%
to 20% and slashing taxes on dividends from 16% to 5%. The budget for 2016 is built
on a deficit of 2.8% of the GDP and an economic growth rate of 4.1%.

The head of the National Anticorruption
Directorate in Romania, Laura Codruta Covesi, is on a mission to the
neighboring Republic of Moldova, where, alongside other European experts, she
will conduct an assessment of the main law institutions in that country.
Following the assessment, the Chisinau authorities will receive some
recommendations regarding the reform of the judiciary and the fight against
corruption. The visit made by the European experts comes against the background
of the political crisis triggered by the disappearance of one billion dollars
from the Moldovan banking system, accounting for 12% of the country’s GDP.
According to the polls, the Moldovan citizens blame the entire political class for
what the media termed ‘the robbery of the century’, in which the former Liberal
Democrat PM Vlad Filat was allegedly involved too.

Retail
volumes in Romania went up by 12.1% in October, as compared to the same period
of 2014, accounting for the most significant growth in the whole of the EU,
reads a report presented on Thursday by the statistical office of the European
Union, EUROSTAT. In the EU, retail trade increased by 3.1% in October, while in
the Eurozone the growth stood at 2.5%. Next after Romania comes Lithuania, with
6.6%, and Estonia with 6.5%. As compared to the previous month, retail remained
stable in the EU and dropped by 0.1% in the Eurozone. The biggest growth rates
were reported by Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Portugal, and the most significant
drops were registered in Slovenia, Ireland, Austria and Great Britain.

Great
Britain has today carried out the first air strikes on Syria, against Islamic
State strongholds, just a few hours after Parliament green lighted the action,
France Presse reports. London has been part of the US-led international
campaign against the jihadist group for a year now, but its military actions
were focused on Iraq alone, as that country had requested international support
in its fight against terrorists. Following the terrorist attacks in Paris, in
November, France too decided to intervene in Syria, and called for its European
partners’ support. The German Government has already endorsed the deployment of
1200 soldiers to the region. Currently, the US, France, Jordan and, starting
today, Great Britain, are bombing Islamist targets in Syria. In a separate move
in late September Russia launched a string of air strikes against Syria,
claiming it was targeting exclusively terrorist positions, but the US and NATO
accuse Moscow of targeting insurgent positions supported by the West. A Russian
fighter has been recently downed by Turkey, during an operation against the
rebels on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Russian president Vladimir
Putin has today started his annual ‘state of the nation’ address by thanking
the Russian soldiers who are participating in the military operation in Syria.
He has stated that the rebels in Syria are a real threat to Russia. He has also
said that Ankara will regret the downing of the Russian bomber on the
Turkish-Syrian border. Putin has also said that Moscow will not ignore the fact
that Ankara is helping the terrorists. According to the Russian president, the
destabilization from the outside of some of the Middle East countries has
opened the door for terrorists.

The Romanian
national women’s handball team on Wednesday defeated away from home the Swedish
squad, 33-30, in its last training match before the World Championship in
Denmark. Over the past week, the Romanians have played three games, winning
against the Czech Republic and Cuba,
and losing to France. The Romanian squad will play their first match at the
World Championship on Saturday against the team of Puerto Rico. Part of the
same group D are also Kazakhstan, Spain, Norway and Russia. The top ranking
four in each group will qualify for the eights finals. Romania is the only
country which, since 1957, has participated in all the final tournaments of the
World Championship, winning gold in 1962
and silver in 1973 and 2005 respectively.