July 27, 2016 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 27.07.2016, 12:15

PLAGIARISM The Romanian Council for Attestation of Academic
Titles, Diplomas and Certificates decided on Wednesday to maintain the report
according to which the PhD dissertation of the former Prime Minister Victor
Ponta was the result of plagiarism and recommended that his PhD title be
withdrawn. This can be done under an order issued by the Ministry of Education.
Victor Ponta, a lawyer by trade and a former prosecutor of the General Prosecutor’s
Office defended his PhD thesis in 2003, when he was the head of the Control Corps of the then Prime Minister
Adrian Nastase, who was also the coordinator of his paper. Victor Ponta says
that this is a matter of political vendetta and has announced he will challenge
the plagiarism report in court.

IMF IMF Experts and Moldovan authorities have
reached an agreement regarding a three-year funding program for economic
reforms. For the program to be approved by the IMF board this autumn, Chisinau
must adopt a priority set of actions in the financial and banking sectors, which
have been seriously affected by the disappearance of one billion dollars in
2014. The Republic of Moldova needs an agreement with the IMF also in order to
be able to unblock other funding sources, especially from the European
Commission, as well as to get the first installment of the 150 million Euro
loan offered by Romania.

VOTING The Romanian Government will submit to
public debate, until mid-August, a draft emergency order on the revision of the
postal voting law for Romanians abroad, PM Dacian Ciolos announced on
Wednesday. Parliamentary elections will be held in Romania at the end of this
year. The National Liberal Party has called on the Government to take several
measures to facilitate voting abroad, such as increasing the number of polling
stations abroad at least to the level of 2014. Also, registration applications
by Romanian citizens living abroad should be submitted by electronic post.
According to the Electoral Authority, over 3,600 applications for registration
in the Election Registry were submitted by July 25, 2016. Over 3 million
Romanians are currently working abroad legally, most of them in EU countries.

BREXIT On Wednesday, the
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker appointed the French Michel
Barnier as Brussels’s chief negotiator for the UK’s exit talks with the EU. The
EC President explained he wanted an experienced political figure for this very
difficult job. Michel Barnier, aged 65, was the European Commissioner for
Financial Services between 2010-2014 and Vice-President of the EC. European
leaders would like London to make the exit announcement as soon as possible,
but the new PM Theresa May has said she will not officially do that by the end
of the year. In the meantime, Great Britain has decided to no longer take on
the rotating presidency of the EU next year. As a result, Romania will hold the
presidency six months earlier than initially scheduled, over January – June
2019.

SOLIDARITY The Romanian Orthodox Church has said that
the attack that took place in a church in northwestern France is a symbolic
attack on Europe’s Christian identity, and has voiced solidarity with the
French people. On Tuesday, two terrorists killed in a barbaric way an 84-year
old priest during the religious service he was holding in the presence of
several people. One of them was seriously injured in the attack. The
perpetrators were killed by the police. ISIS has claimed the attack.

EXERCISE Over
July 27th and August 7th, 2700 soldiers from 10 countries are taking
part in a large-scale exercise in Cincu, central Romania. Participating are
NATO members, namely Romania, the USA, Canada, Poland and Bulgaria, joined by
five members of the Partnership for Peace: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.