July 6, 2016 UPDATE

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Valentin Țigău, 06.07.2016, 12:20

RULING – Romanias Constitutional Court has unanimously endorsed the notification sent by President Klaus Iohannis on the unconstitutional character of a law. According to this law, mayors and local county councillors indicted for corruption deeds, and who got suspended prison sentences, can further be maintained in their public positions. Iohannis challenged this law at the Constitutional Court, on grounds of hindering the fight against corruption. Also on Wednesday, the Court decided to postpone until September 13th issuing a ruling 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 to the bill also say that the law applies retroactively, which runs counter to a principle established by the Constitution.

RESHUFFLE – The new ministers nominated by Romanias technocratic PM, Dacian Ciolos, following the cabinet reshuffle announced on Tuesday, will be sworn in on Thursday, a communiqué issued by the Presidential Administration reads. The ministers who have been replaced are transport minister, Dan Costescu, education minister, Adrian Curaj, the minister delegate for the relation with the Romanian diaspora, Dan Stoenescu, and communications minister, Marius Bostan. The names of their successors have already been made public. This is the most extensive government reshuffle made by PM Dacian Ciolos since he took office, in November 2015.

VISAS – The Canadian migration minister will have talks with members of the European Commission next week on mutual visa exemption. The meeting is held in the context in which Romania and Bulgaria might vote against the EU-Canada Agreement, in response to the Canadian governments refusal to lift visas for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens. The EU intends to endorse the document in October.

NATO SUMMIT – Polands capital, Warsaw, is preparing to receive over 2,200 participants in the NATO Summit that starts on Friday. Alongside NATO members, European Union officials and leaders of Georgia, Ukraine and Afghanistan are also expected to attend the summit. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said the Alliances leaders will be making key decisions for the consolidation of NATOs defence and deterrence capabilities. Also, a Romanian brigade will be turned into a multinational force. Moreover, multinational battalions will be dispatched to the three Baltic states and Poland.

HUNGARIAN BORDER SECURITY – The Hungarian authorities have stopped over 1,000 people from illegally crossing the border into Hungary as of Tuesday, when the new border security regulations were enforced, on an 8 km wide strip, on the countrys southern frontier. The measures have been criticised by the UNHCR for violating the immigrants rights. Also on Tuesday, Budapest announced that Hungary will organise, on October 2, a referendum on the European plan regarding the refugee distribution quota across the EU.

THE OSCE – Victor Paul Dobre, a member of the Romanian Parliaments delegation at 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 1 and 5. The OSCE addresses a wide range of security-related issues, including arms control, security-building measures, human rights, national minorities, democratisation, counter-terrorism as well as 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. Romanias Parliament has been part of the OSCEs Parliamentary Assembly since its establishment, in 1991, with a standing delegation made up of seven MPs.

DRILLS- Divers from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, the US, Turkey and Ukraine are taking part, until Saturday, in a multinational exercise in Romanias territorial waters. This joint exercise, currently at its 6th edition consists in finding, neutralising and destroying underwater-improvised explosives devices and naval 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 such countries 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 jointly with Romania, and is a computer simulation of an large-scale disaster situation, resulting in multiple victims and the evacuation of thousands of people.

(Translated by D. Vijeu and E. Enache)