October 16, 2018 UPDATE

The “Earthquake 2018 national exercise organised by Romania continued on Tuesday

Newsroom, 16.10.2018, 18:56

VISIT — President Klaus Iohannis’ state visit to Italy focused on Tuesday on economic aspects, after on Monday the talks with the President and PM of Italy concerned the importance of the Romanian community in Italy and Bucharest’s priorities during its presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019. The President of Romania took part in the opening of the Romania-Italy business forum, an event designed to encourage the economic dimension of the consolidated strategic partnership. Also on Tuesday President Iohannis had a meeting with representatives of the Romanian community in Italy, the largest Romanian community abroad and the largest foreign community in Italy. President Iohannis decorated Laura Mattarella, the Italian President’s daughter and Ugo Zampetti, Secretary General of the Italian Presidency with the ‘Star of Romania’ National Order for their exceptional contribution to the development of the Romanian-Italian relations of collaboration and friendship.

SUMMIT — The Romanian Minister of Labor and Social Justice, Lia Olguta Vasilescu, attended on Tuesday in Brussels the Tripartite Social Summit for Growth and Employment that was opened by the European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and the EU Council President Donald Tusk. The main theme of the summit was reinforcing competitiveness, sustainable job creation and social fairness in the EU. The Romanian minister had a meeting with Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, whom she presented Romania’s priorities after taking over the EU Council Presidency on January 1st, 2019.

DIPLOMATIC TOUR — While on an official working visit to the United Arab Emirates, the Romanian PM Viorica Dăncilă had a meeting on Tuesday with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the country’s vice-president and PM and the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai. The two officials assessed bilateral relations, with a focus on economic aspects. Viorica Dancila presented the main advantages of investing in Romania and encouraged the participation of Emirate companies in projects financed under current operational programmes, as well as in public-private investment partnerships. The Romanian PM also had a meeting ton Tuesday with Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC) in Dubai. Romania gives priority to long-term cooperation with the UAE in fields such as industrial and civilian constructions, technology transfers, agriculture and food safety, nuclear and green energy, defence and IT, PM Dancila said. On Monday the PM of Romania was on a visit to Turkey, where she was received by the head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

EXERCISE — The “Earthquake 2018” national exercise organised by Romania reached its 4th day. The simulation exercise involved all the structures with responsibilities in a major earthquake response situation in Bucharest. Rescuers practice responses to critical situations, with thousands of dead, injured and evacuated people. The Romanian Interior Ministry announced that the EU ModEx exercise was also initiated, focusing on the coordination and collaboration of healthcare service modules. This is the largest and most complex exercise for medical modules as part of the European civil protection mechanism. Observers and participants from 26 EU member states are involved, as well as capabilities from non-EU member countries.

INVICTUS — Romania’s representatives in the 2018 Sydney Invictus Games met on Tuesday the Defence Minister Mihai Fifor and the Chief of Staff, Gen. Nicolae Ciucă. The 15 Romanian military wounded in the line of duty are taking part, between October 17 and 29, in 6 individual sports events—archery, athletics, indoor rowing, powerlifting, road cycling, and swimming, and in the sitting volleyball event. Last year in the Invictus Games held in Toronto, Canada, Romania was represented by 15 wounded troops, in 6 individual events and 1 team event. In their first participation in the Games the Romanians won a gold, a silver and 2 bronze medals. Invictus Games is a sports competition first held in 2014, for national teams made up of veterans and troops wounded in theatres of operations.

JUDICIARY — The Constitutional Court of Romania on Tuesday admitted part of the objection raised by President Klaus Iohannis to changes in the Law on local elected officials. The President argued that the changes introduce new penalties for local and county councillors, which were already regulated by the Conflict of Interests Act. The bill will therefore be returned to Parliament, which is to bring the unconstitutional articles in line with the ruling of the Constitutional Court. Also on Tuesday the institution admitted the objection raised by the head of state against the bill modifying the Law on the organisation and functioning of the Court of Accounts. On the other hand, the Constitutional Court postponed to October 25th the objections filed by the President and the National Liberal Party and Save Romania Union in opposition, regarding changes to the Administrative Code. The head of state says the law has been endorsed by the Chamber of Deputies in a special sitting, which comes against the Constitution and violates the principle of bicameralism. President Iohannis also believes several articles are unclear, and he criticises the scrapping of incompatibility as an integrity criterion in selecting the members of the Cabinet. Also on Tuesday, the Constitutional Court has deferred to October 24th the notifications submitted by President Iohannis, the Supreme Court, and the opposition parties, against changes to the Criminal Code and the Law on preventing, investigating and punishing corruption offences.