26 April 2017

Romanian carriers and taxi drivers ended protest after promises that piracy in their field will be tackled./ Parliament sacks the management of the Radio Broadcasting Corporation.

Newsroom, 26.04.2017, 13:42

Romanian senators and deputies
today held a solemn meeting to celebrate the role of the north-eastern city of
Iasi in the Great Union of 1918 and the historic and political role of the
legislative body 100 years ago. Between 1916 and 1918, during WWI, Iasi hosted
the Council of Ministers, the Senate and the Assembly of Deputies, while the
decisions taken in Iasi laid the foundations for the consolidation and
development of the state. Parliament took refuge in Iasi together with the
royal family when Bucharest was occupied by the forces of the Central Powers.
Two decisions were taken at the time that later translated into two important
laws, namely the agrarian law and the universal vote law. The festive meeting
today was attended by senators and deputies, princess Margaret, the Custodian
of the Romanian Crown, representatives of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the
Romanian Academy and the Government, parliamentarians and ministers from the
ex-Soviet, majority Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova and foreign diplomats
accredited in Bucharest.

The minister of public consultation and social dialogue Gabriel Petrea
and the representatives of authorised carriers in Romania today reached an
agreement amid a large-scale protest held by carriers in Bucharest. Under the
agreement, the authorities have promised to promote, within 30 days, a bill to
amend the law on taxi and rental transport. As a result, carriers have ender
their protest. Dialogue will continue in order to tackle other problems faced
by carriers. Over 500 carriers brought thousands of vehicles in front of the
government headquarters to protest against what they called the piracy on the
market and the lack of clear legislation to penalise unauthorised activity in
the field.

Georgian prime
minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili today begins a two-day visit to Romania. He is due to meet president Klaus Iohannis, prime minister Sorin Grindeanu and the senate speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu. The Georgian prime minister will also attend a reception to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Georgian-Romanian diplomatic ties. The two countries cooperate in areas such as tourism, economy, agriculture, maritime trade, culture, science and sports. In the first quarter of the year, trade exchanges amounted to 44.3 million dollars.

The Romanian Parliament today rejected the 2015 and 2016 activity reports
of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation, thus leading to the sacking of
president Ovidiu Miculescu from the Board of Administration. Serving as
President and Director General of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation
since 2012, Ovidiu Miculescu has been under investigation for abuse of office
and conflict of interest since 2016 in a case involving the purchase of travel
services in which ten members of the Board of Administration have also been indicted. Recently, Ovidiu Miculescu
received a verdict of incompatibility in court for being in the management of
another public institution while also serving in the management board of the
public radio station. Some of the public station’s employees repeatedly
revealed the serious harm done to the station’s image by Ovidiu Miculescu’s
legal problems. The former Social Democratic senator Georgica Severin is to
take over from Miculescu in an interim position.

World no. 5 Simona Halep of Romania today faces the Czech player Barbora Strycova, world no. 17, at the Stuttgart tennis
tournament worth 760,000 dollars in prize money. Halep has won two of the three
matches she has played against Strycova so far. In Stuttgart, Halep has also
reached the doubles quarterfinal, where she pairs up with the Polish player Alicja Rosolska.They will
face the winners of the match between the Czech-Australian pair Andrea
Hlavackova and Samantha Stosur and the all-Croatian pair Mirjana Lucic-Baroni
and Darija Jurak. In other news from tennis, the Romanian-Dutch pair Horia
Tecau and Jean Julien-Rojer reached the doubles quarterfinals of the Barcelona
tournament worth 2.3 million euros. They will play the winner of the match
between the all-Spanish pair Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez and the
Polish-German pair Lukasz Kubot and Mischa Zverev.