October 17, 2017 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 17.10.2017, 20:06

PESCO – The Country’s Supreme Defence Council on Tuesday approved Romania’s
participation in the EU defence initiative. According to the presidential
administration, Romania intends to participate with 10 projects as part of the
Permanent Structured Cooperation programme (PESCO), aimed at strengthening
common EU defence. The Council’s meeting was held two days between the European
Council meeting in Brussels, whose agenda also includes matters relating to common defence.

GOVERNMENT – The
three new ministers proposed by the Social Democratic Party, the main party in
the ruling coalition in Romania, were sworn in on Tuesday evening, in the
presence of the head of state Klaus Iohannis. The three are Development
Minister Paul Stanescu, Transportation Minister Felix Stroe and the Minister
for European Funds Marius Nica. They have replaced Sevil Shhaideh, Rovana Plumb
and Razvan Cuc, who have resigned. Shhaideh and Plumb are under investigation
by the National Anticorruption Directorate in a case of corruption, and
minister Cuc was accused of underperformance. The Alliance of Liberals and
Democrats in Romania, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, has announced
it will not withdraw support for its minister Viorel Ilie, Minister for Liaison
with Parliament, ho is currently under
investigation for influence peddling.

EUROZONE – Romania must have a healthy
economy in order to join the Eurozone in favourable conditions, said on Tuesday
the Governor of the National Bank of Romania Mugur Isarescu. He also said that
becoming one of the Eurozone countries was a strategic goal for Romania, even
though Europe was faced with challenges regarding its structure and functioning. The
head of the Central Bank also stated that Romania must be involved in
establishing the way in which the European construction will look and function.

ANTICORRUPTION – The head
of the Anticorruption Directorate in Romania, Laura Codruta Kovesi, attended in
Brussels on Tuesday a conference organised by the European Parliament. On the
occasion, Kovesi stated that the prosecutors’ actions can be sustainable only
if they are completed by preventive actions carried out by institutions with
responsibilities in the field. She talked, among other things, about some of
the characteristics of the Directorate and the results obtained by the
institution in combating corruption, in the past 10 years. The Directorate is
presented as one of the five best practices at the level of the EU, Kovesi also
said. The statements were made at the conference titled Learning lesions from
Romania: exchange of good practices between anticorruption authorities in
Romania and Ukraine.

IMMUNITY VOTE – The Romanian Chamber of Deputies has
rejected, through secret voting, the request filed by the National
Anticorruption Directorate to start the prosecution of the former minister
delegate for European funds, Rovana Plumb. Only 99 deputies voted in favour
of lifting her immunity, while the
other 183 voted against. Plumb is
accused of complicity to abuse of office while serving as minister for the
environment and climate change, as part of a corruption case that also involves
the former deputy prime minister Sevil Shhaideh. The National Anticorruption
Directorate claims that, through the concerted action of persons holding public
offices, parts of the Danube’s Belina Island and Pavel Branch were illegally
transferred from state property to that of the Teleorman county and under the
management of the Teleorman County Council before being leased, again
illegally, to a private firm a few days later. Prosecutors argue that the
property in question belongs to public domain and could not become the property
of a county council through government order but only by law.

CAR MAKING – The car industry
in Romania, which accounts for a quarter of the country’s exports, has called
for transparency from the government. The head of the Romanian-German Chamber
of Commerce and Industry Dragos Anastasiu told a conference in Bucharest that
insufficiently prepared fiscal and economic measures can damage the sector,
with its almost 600 companies and around 200,000 employees. Government advisor
Florin Vodita said the government has taken measures to stimulate innovation,
research and development in the sector by exempting companies from paying profit
tax in their first ten years of activity.