July 6, 2016

Romanian MP Victor Paul Dobre has been elected OSCE vice-president.

Newsroom, 06.07.2016, 12:00

OSCE Victor Paul Dobre, a member of the Romanian Parliament’s delegation with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has been elected vice-president of this organisation, at its 25th annual meeting held in Tbilisi, Georgia, between July 1st and 5th. The OSCE addresses a wide range of security-related issues, including arms control, security-building measures, human rights, national minorities, democratisation, counter-terrorism and economic and environmental matters. It is made up of 57 participating states that span the globe, encompassing three continents – North America, Europe and Asia – and more than a billion people. Romania’s Parliament has been part of the OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly since its establishment, in 1991, with a permanent delegation made up of seven MPs.

VISAS Bucharest and Sofia have announced they will not ratify the EU-Canada trade agreement until Canadian authorities decide to regulate the visa policy for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens. Officials with the two European states say that Canada treats Romanian and Bulgarian citizens in a discriminatory manner in terms of visa policy. The European Commission assured Romania and Bulgaria, the only EU countries whose citizens still need entry visas for Canada, of its constant efforts to solve the problem, but pointed out that the two countries should not link the visa issue to the trade agreement.

GOVERNMENT RESHUFFLE The Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has announced the replacement of four of the 22 members of his cabinet, namely the Minister of Education, Adrian Curaj, of Communications, Marius Bostan, of Transportation, Dan Costescu and of the Minister-Delegate for Relations with Romanians Abroad, Dan Stoenescu. The Prime Minister has stated that the four have done their job, generally speaking, but the government team needs some fresh impetus. This is the most extensive government reshuffle made by PM Ciolos since he took over his mandate in November 2015. The new ministers will be sworn in on Thursday. Find out more about it after the news. e its establishment, in 1991, with a standing delegation made up of seven MPs.

RULING Romania’s Constitutional Court has unanimously ruled today that the law challenged by President Klaus Iohannis is unconstitutional. According to this law, mayors and local county councillors indicted for corruption deeds, and who received suspended prison sentences, can further be maintained in their public position. Iohannis challenged this law at the Constitutional Court, on grounds of hindering the fight against corruption. Also today, the Court has decided to postpone until September 13th a decision on the bill challenged by almost 100 parliament members. The bill, passed two weeks ago, stipulates that MPs who had hired their relatives at their parliamentary cabinets before August 21, 2013, can no longer be accused of conflict of interests. The MPs who are now challenging this bill say it could create a legal conflict of constitutional nature between Parliament and the High Court of Cassation and Justice, as it introduces a new interpretation of the conflict of interests. Moreover, the signatories also say that the law applies retroactively, which is against a principle established by the Constitution.

SUMMIT Poland’s capital, Warsaw, is preparing to receive over 2,200 participants at the NATO summit that starts on Friday. Alongside NATO members, European Union leaders and leaders of Georgia, Ukraine and Afghanistan are also expected. NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the Alliance’s leaders will be taking crucial decisions for the consolidation of NATO’s defense and discouragement capabilities. Also, a Romanian brigade will be turned into a multinational force. Moreover, multinational battalions will be dispatched in the three Baltic countries and Poland.

NATO Divers from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, the US, Turkey and Ukraine are taking part, until Saturday in a multinational exercise in Romania’s territorial waters. This joint exercise, currently at its 6th edition consists in finding, neutralising and destroying improvised explosives underwater and in fighting against marine mines. We remind you that also these days the town of Targu-Mures, in central Romania, is playing host to a NATO exercise, enjoying the participation of 17 teams from countries such as Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Serbia, Sweden, the US, Switzerland and Turkey. The exercise was organized by the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre and Romania, and is a computer simulation of an large-scale disaster situation, resulting in multiple victims and the evacuation of thousands of people.

EURO 2016 The French city of Lyon is hosting this evening the first semi-final of EURO 2016, with Wales up against Portugal. On Thursday, in Marseilles, the host-country France will be up against Germany. We remind you that Romania left the competition in the group stage.

(Translated by Elena Enache)