16 June, 2016

President Basescu's brother sentenced, PM Ciolos holds visa talks with Canadian PM

Daniela Budu, 16.06.2016, 11:59

SENTENCE — Mircea Basescu, the brother of former president Traian Basescu, has been sentenced to four years in prison for influence peddling, in a corruption trial prosecuted two years ago. According to the prosecution, between February 2011 and February 2012, Mircea Basescu received a quarter of a million Euro in exchange for promising to use his influence in the prosecution of a criminal case to obtain a reduced sentence or a favorable ruling.

STATE VISIT — Romanian head of state Klaus Iohannis is today on a visit to several locations in Bulgaria, paying homage to the Romanian and Russian soldiers who lost their lives in the 1877 war to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman occupation. On Wednesday, President Iohannis met his Bulgarian counterpart, Rosen Plevneliev, to talk economic, political and military cooperation between Romania and Bulgaria. The two heads of state spoke in favor of Black Sea area security. While in Sofia, he visited the Mihai Eminescu Romanian language high school there, also meeting workers on the Giurgiu-Ruse pipeline between the two countries, to be inaugurated later this year.

VISAS — Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos on Wednesday talked with his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, about the issue of visas for Romanian citizens at the political level, as the issue had been debated only technically that far. Ciolos handed to the Canadian PM a letter written together with Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov, requesting reciprocity in the issue of visas for Romanian and Bulgarian visas, as specified in the declaration of the latest EU-Canada summit, in 2014. Romania and Bulgaria are the last two European Union states whose citizens have to get visas to travel to Canada. In 2002, Bucharest dropped the requirement for Canadian citizens to have visas for short stays in Romania, in line with EU regulations. The two PMs discussed bilateral relations, in view of the fact that Canada has about 200,000 Romanian origin inhabitants.

MOLDOVA — Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu and French Undersecretary for European Affairs with the French Foreign Ministry, Harlem Desir, are visiting Moldova for two days. The two are scheduled to meet Andrei Galbur, the Moldovan Foreign Minister, analyzing the evolution of the political dialog between Moldova and the EU, the implementation of the structural reform agenda in view of the association agreement with the Union, as well as bilateral cooperation. According to the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest, the two officials from Romania and France will be also received by the president of Moldova, Nicolae Timofti, the speaker of Parliament, Adrian Candu, by PM Pavel Filip, and will also meet civil society and political party representatives.

WEATHER — The weather in Romania is getting warmer fast, especially in the south and south west. Skies are variable, with some clouds in the north west and the mountains, with light showers. Maximums are between 24 and 32 degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest was 28 degrees. At the same time, heavy rains and flooding have hit 100 localities in 18 counties in Romania, including the capital Bucharest. There were no victims, but several hundred people have to be evacuated.

FOOTBALL — Romanias national football team tied against Switzerland in its second game in Group A of the European Championship. In that same group, France defeated Albania 2-0. in the fist games in the group, Romania was defeated by France, and the Swiss defeated Albania 1-0. France has practically qualified for the eighth finals, as first in the group, with six points, followed by Switzerland, with four points, Romania, one point, and Albania, no points. The only hope Romania has to qualify to the next stage at this point is to defeat Albania on Sunday. This is the first time in a Euro championship when 24 teams play, and four teams who come in third place are able to qualify, in addition to the ones coming in the first two places.

WARSAW — Joint Chief Staff of Staff of the Romanian armed forces, Nicolae Ciuca, observes today the ANAKONDA-16 multinational exercise in the north west of Poland. The Romanian military contributed 250 soldiers and about 40 pieces of hardware. This is a multinational exercise, running until June the 17th, gathering together 25,000 soldiers from 19 NATO member countries. This is Polands most important military exercise of the last 25 years.