2 October 2019

No-confidence motion against Social Democrat government to be put to vote on 10 October./ Europalia arts festival dedicated to Romania gets under way in Brussels./ Radio Romania organises 5th Media2020 Conference.

Newsroom, 02.10.2019, 19:42

No-confidence
vote. The motion of no-confidence submitted on Tuesday against the minority
Social Democratic cabinet led by Viorica Dancila will be read out in Parliament
on Thursday and put to a vote on the 10th of October, Parliament’s
joint permanent bureaus have decided. The reading was initially scheduled for
Wednesday and the vote for Saturday, but the plan was rejected, as the
opposition described as abusive the Social Democrats’ decision to hold the vote
at the weekend. The motion is entitled To rebuild Romania, the Dancila
government must be urgently dismissed! It was signed by 237 MPs from across
the political spectrum, 4 more than the number required for the government to
fall.

Dismissal.
President Klaus Iohannis has signed the dismissal of the chief prosecutor of
the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism Felix Banila,
the president’s office has announced. Earlier, Banila tendered his resignation but
insisted he did not fail in the fulfilment of his duties. On Monday, the
president had asked for his resignation over his handling of the inquiries into
the killing of three girls aged between 11 and 18 in the south of Romania. The
president said that in all cases, he saw a slow response and scandalous public
gestures from some state bodies denoting a lack of concern for the victims and
their families.

EU commissioner.
The refusal of prime minister Viorica Dancila to hold consultations with the
president regarding Romania’s pick for European commissioner is a blatant
violation of the Constitution and gravely affects Romania’s credibility, said
president Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday, when he had invited Dancila for talks.
He also said Dancila’s response shows a total lack of political responsibility
and again asked her to make a new proposal for the position of European
commissioner only after consultations with him and after obtaining Parliament’s
opinion. In response, the prime minister said the president had been informed
that Dan Nica was proposed for the job at the same time as Rovana Plumb. A
Social Democrat MP, Dan Nica is the new proposal of the Romanian government for
the position of European commissioner for transport after Rovana Plumb’s
nomination was rejected by the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee for
conflict of interest.

Moldova.
The EU’s High Representative for foreign affairs and security policy Federica
Mogherini travels to the Republic of Moldova on Thursday, the Moldovan
government says in a statement. Mogherini will have talks with the Moldovan
prime minister Maia Sandu. The European Union is prepared to increase its
financial aid to Moldova, said Mogherini on Monday during the 5th
meeting of the Republic of Moldova-EU association council. However, support is
made conditional on reforms, Mogherini underlined. She also spoke about the
Transnistria issue, saying fresh progress is needed during the talks in the 5+2
format, namely Moldova, the break-away Transnistria, Russia, Ukraine and the
OSCE, plus the European Union and the US as observers.

Festival.
The EUROPALIA International Arts Festival opened for the public on Wednesday in
Brussels, with Romania as the guest of honour this year. The official opening
was held on Tuesday, and it was attended, among others, by King Philippe of
Belgium, Queen Mathilde and Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis. They visited the
exhibition devoted to the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi entitled Brancusi. Sublimation of Form and hosted
by the Bozar centre and organised by the Romanian Cultural Institute. This is
the most important exhibition devoted to the Romanian artist in recent decades
and the highlight of the festival. Over the next four months, Europalia events
will be held in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and Great
Britain, featuring some 250 different visual arts, music, theatre, cinema,
literature and performing arts projects.

Media conference. On Thursday, Radio Romania is organising the fifth edition of the Media 2020 Conference, in partnership with the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU). The event takes place in Bucharest and brings together over 40 representatives of the most important public media organisations in Europe and Asia-Pacific. The debates will focus on the future of the public media in the digital age, strategies for protecting copyright and combating the phenomenon of fake news. Adapting the radio to the new digital context, 5G technology, promoting cultural diversity and collective memory between East and West through the use of new digital technologies will also be on the agenda of the conference. At the beginning of the conference, Radio Romania and BBC Radio will sign a bilateral agreement on the development of a creative partnership of cooperation between the two institutions.