October 19, 2016 UPDATE

Romanias President Klaus Iohannis will attend the European Council in Brussels/ Around 70 NATO member and partner states attend the Strategic Military Partner Conference in Bucharest

Leyla Cheamil, 19.10.2016, 12:20

EUROPEAN COUNCIL – Romanias President, Klaus Iohannis, on Thursday and Friday, will attend the European Council meeting in Brussels. The agenda of the talks covers three major issues: migration management, the EUs trade policy and foreign relations. Upon leaving for Brussels, the Romanian President said that, in terms of migration, the participants will analyse the stage of implementing the mobility partnerships between the EU and third countries, non EU members, such as Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. Klaus Iohannis reiterated Romanias support for capitalising on these mobility partnerships, which produce direct benefits, for a better migration management. In another move, Klaus Iohannis underlined that Romania supports the EUs trade agreement with the US. He also expressed hope that Romania and Canada will reach an agreement as regards a visa waiver for Romanian citizens, adding that if a reasonable agreement is reached, Bucharest will withdraw its reservations relating to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU. Klaus Iohannis made clear that a reasonable agreement, means to Romania, the lifting of Canadian visas for Romanian citizens in 2017 and not 2018. The Romanian president also announced he will have bilateral talks, on the sidelines of the summit, with British Prime Minister, Theresa May, which will cover, among others, the situation of the Romanian nationals living in Great Britain.

CONFERENCE – Bucharest is playing host to the Strategic Military Partner Conference organised by the NATO Allied Command Transformation. Around 70 NATO member and partner states are participating, as well as other countries, such as Colombia and Nigeria, which are taking part in such consultations for the first time. Talks focus on the prospects of expanding NATO partnerships and an in-depth analysis of the concepts resulting from the NATO Summit held in Warsaw in July. The meeting in Bucharest lasts three days and contains four planning workshops dealing with the maritime, air and space, land and cyber domains.

MOURNING – Senior
Liberal member, Radu Campeanu, the first president of the National Liberal
Party after the fall of the communist regime in Romania, in December 1989,
passed away on Wednesday, at 94 years of age. He held the presidency of the
Liberal Party between 1990 and 1993. In the wake of WWII, Radu Campeanu took
part in the anti-communist protest movements held over February 24-28,
1945. Arrested in 1948, he spent many
years in the communist prisons, as a political detainee. After he was released
from prison, he emigrated to France. In 1990, Radu Campeanu returned to Romania,
where he reconstructed the National Liberal Party. He was senator of Bucharest
in the 1990-1992 period and the Liberal candidate for the presidential election
in Romania, in 1990, when he ranked second.

TOKEN STRIKE – Members of the Sanitas trade union federation in the healthcare sector were on a 2-hour token strike on Wednesday morning. During the strike, a third of normal duties were ensured, as well as all medical and surgical emergencies. Healthcare trade unions started their protests almost a month ago. They demand a unitary salary scheme for all medical staff, for the bonuses for special working conditions to be calculated based on current salaries and for holiday and meal vouchers. Sanitas representatives say they received no offer from the authorities and threaten to go on an all-out strike on the 31st of October. Sanitas has more than 100,000 members, including medical and sanitary staff, specialist staff, and auxiliary, technical and administrative staff.

TRIAL – The High Court of Cassation and Justice judges have rejected all requests and exceptions raised by Gabriel Oprea and ruled for the start of a trial on merits in a case in which Oprea, a former deputy prime minister and interior minister, is accused of spending operative funds from the budget of the Intelligence and Internal Protection Directorate. The courts ruling is not final. In May, Oprea was indicted by the National Anticorruption Directorate for abuse of office together with other senior officers from the Interior Ministry. Oprea is also under investigation in a separate case in which he is accused of manslaughter. A police officer died last year in a motorcycle accident while providing official escort to Oprea, who was serving as interior minister. However, Oprea is believed to have been on a personal trip at the time, which means he was not entitled to official police escort.

JUSTICE– Romanias technocratic prime minister Dacian Ciolos believes justice minister Raluca Pruna should stay in office following the passing of a simple no-confidence motion against her in the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday. Ciolos says the motion is a rebuke of Pruna over some of her statements, without raising any essential objections about her activity. The motion was filed by the Social Democrats after minister Pruna admitted she lied before the European Court of Human Rights with respect to the funds allocated to prisons in Romania. Pruna took responsibility for her statements saying no one can take away her right to signal the problems facing the justice system, including under-funding.

MIGRANTS – 29 immigrants from Syria, including 17 minors aged between 2 and 17, were stopped on Wednesday morning by the Romanian border police in Timis as they were trying to cross from Serbia into Romania illegally. They did not carry identity papers but said they were Syrian nationals and that they crossed the Serbian border on foot planning to reach a country in western Europe. This is the largest group of Middle Eastern migrants to force the Romanian western border in Timis county this autumn. In the last two months, the authorities have thwarted many attempts to cross the border into Romania in the west, south-west and south.

TENNIS- World no. 50 Monica Niculescu of Romania on Wednesday qualified for the quarterfinals of the Luxembourg tennis tournament, with 225,000 dollars in prize money up for grabs, after defeating Italys Francesca Schiavone, no.99. This is the first victory grabbed by Niculescu against Schiavone, who had defeated the Romanian player four times before. The Italian player got the first victory in the eighth finals in Moscow, back in 2009. Then she defeated Niculescu in the third round of the Australian Open in 2011, in the eights finals in New Haven, in 2011, and in the first round of the Stuttgart tennis tournament, in 2012. (Translated by D. Vijeu)