February 15, 2019 UPDATE

Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 15.02.2019, 20:20

BUDGET Romania’s Parliament on Friday
passed the budget draft law and the social security draft on 2019. The budget
was drawn up by taking into account an economic growth of 5.5%, a deficit of
2.76% and a GDP of more than 200 billion Euros. According to the ruling
PSD-ALDE coalition, the budget reflects Romania’s economic and social realities
laying emphasis on three priority issues: healthcare, education and investment.
The opposition MPs from the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union and
the People’s Movement Party, have voted against the draft, arguing that the
budget was built on over-inflated incomes.

DNA The former head of Romania’s main
Anti-corruption Agency (DNA), Laura Codruta Kovesi, on Friday went to the
Department for the Investigation of Magistrates with the General Prosecutor’s
Office in Bucharest to be briefed upon the accusations leveled against her in a
file where she has been charged with abuse of office, bribe-taking and false
testimony. After the hearings, Kovesi said she had submitted two recusation applications
against both the special prosecutor and the department’s chief prosecutor.
Kovesi said she wasn’t guilty and that there was no coincidence that the
subpoena she received came right ahead her upcoming interview with the European
Parliament for the position of European chief prosecutor. The local press has
credited Kovesi as Romania’s right candidate for the job.

TENNIS Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, who is also the
world’s number 3, on Friday qualified for the finals of the WTA tournament
in Doha, Qatar, a competition with more than 900 thousand dollars in prize
money. The Romanian defeated Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. In the
Saturday’s finals, Halep will be up against Elise Mertens of Belgium who
secured a 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 win against Angelique Kerber of Germany.

SECURITY As a high-ranking
representative of Romania, a country currently holding the six-month rotating
presidency of the Council of the European Union, President Klaus Iohannis is opening
on Saturday a series of debates part of the 55th Munich Security
Conference, together with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and the President
of Egypt, the country currently holding the presidency of the African Union.
The Romanian official is expected to underline the need to consolidate NATO as
a warrantor of Euro-Atlantic Security, as well as the fact that cooperation and
coordination between NATO and the EU guarantees security and prosperity. Iohannis
has pointed out that the Black Sea region is one of the most important
strategic landmarks of the current security context, and Romania wants to
remain a pillar of regional stability and a source of security and stability in
NATO and the EU. The Munich Security Conference is a major global forum for the
discussion of security policy.

(translated by bill)