April 6, 2019 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 06.04.2019, 19:09

REFERENDUM – Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has called a round of consultations
next week regarding the justice referendum. On Thursday the National Liberal Party,
Save Romania Union and People’s Movement Party will start consultations, along
with the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and national minorities. On
Friday, the Social-Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats
are expected to meet the president. The latter has already declined the
president’s invitation, while Social-Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea said he
won’t attend the consultations, although the party will send a delegation. We
recall that on Thursday, the President announced
that the themes which he would submit to the vote at the May 26 referendum,
held simultaneously with the European Parliament elections, are related to
forbidding amnesty and pardon of corruption crimes and forbidding the
government to pass emergency decrees related to criminal offences and
punishments, correlated with the right of other authorities to notify the
Constitutional Court over such decrees. At the same time the President
criticized the Social-Democrats’ propensity for passing emergency decrees and
has called on the Government to refrain from any such actions until the
referendum. The power in turn accused the head of state of defending election
interests while the Liberals have welcomed the referendum.

ELECTION – The Central Election Bureau has admitted the
list of candidates submitted by nine political parties and independent
candidate for the European Parliament election due in May. According to a
release published on the institution’s website, the Bureau admitted the
candidacies submitted by the Social-Democratic Party, the National Liberal
Party, the 2020 Save Romania Union – Plus Alliance, the Alliance of Liberals
and Democrats, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and the PRO Romania
party. The candidates of the People’s Movement Party and the United Romania
Party have also been declared eligible. The Bureau also accepted the
independent candidacy of Gregoriana Tudoran, a representative of the Together
for A8 Association. The decision can be challenged by April 12 and the final
result will be announced on April 16. The election campaign starts on April 27
and the election will be held on May 26.

MEETING – The
informal meeting of the EU finance ministers continued in Bucharest on Saturday
against the backdrop of Romania’s holding the EU presidency. One of the main
topics on the agenda was selective mobility. Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici
said at the end of the ECOFIN meeting that European states whose workforce
migrates to other states should come up with an aggressive package of measures
for selective mobility. On Friday the meeting hosted under the name Eurogrup
brought together Finance Ministers from the Eurozone and marked the first
working session of the informal meeting of Finance Ministers and central bank
governors, chaired by Romania’s line minister Eugen Teodorovici. Eurogroup
members discussed the banking sector, inflation and the exchange rate as well
as the developments in Greece.

REPORT – Over a third of the 2,300 alerts on dangerous
products were triggered with respect to toys, a report published by the
European Commission for 2018 reads. Toys are followed by motor vehicles,
clothing, textiles and fashion items. The main risks flagged are chemical risks
and injuries, followed by the choking risk for children. Over half of the total
number of products identified as dangerous originate from China. Cooperation with Chinese authorities in the
product safety field continues to be a priority, the European Commission has
announced.

DRUG OPERATION – Over 300 police officers,
gendarmes and divers are currently taking part in a wide drug search operation
on the Romanian Black Seacoast over an area of 90 km, Romanian Police spokesman
Georgian Dragan said on Saturday. Some 14 ships and two helicopters are also
taking part in the mission. Organized by the Directorate for Investigating
Organized Crime and Terrorism, the operation kicked off after several drug
packages washed off on the shore on several beaches. The search op will
continue over the next days. The Police say two people have been placed under
pre-trial arrest and searches were made at their homes. The investigation is
ongoing. Some 200 km of drugs have been found on beaches and out at sea so far.

TENNIS – Romania’s Davis Cup team on Saturday defeated
Zimbabwe 4-1 in the first round of Group II in the Europe-Africa zone. Romania
on Saturday grabbed three wins. Horia Tecau and Florin Mergea defeated Benjamin
and Courtney Lock in the doubles match 6-1, 6-4. In the singles, Marius Copil defeated
Takanyi Garanganga 6-4, 7-5, while Filip Jianu defeated Mehluli Don Ayanda
Sibanda. On Friday Dima defeated Garanganga while Copil lost to Benjamin Lock.
The two teams previously met in 2000 when Romania won 3-2.

(translated by V. Palcu)