November 27, 2019

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 27.11.2019, 13:43

RESIGNATION – Last night, the former prime-minister of Romania, Viorica Dancila, stepped down as president of the Social Democratic Party. She has stated she had to resign at the end of a tense meeting of the partys national executive committee, organized after Ms Dancila lost the presidential runoff on Sunday to the current president of the country, Klaus Iohannis. The interim leadership of the Social Democratic Party is now held by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu. A party congress is likely to be held early next year.

DEFENSE – Romanias Supreme Defense Council, chaired by president Klaus Iohannis, gathers today to discuss the appointment of a new Chief of Staff of the Romanian Armed Forces and Romanias objectives for NATOs summit to be hosted by London in December. Also, the 2020 plan for operations abroad will be discussed. This is the first meeting of the Council attended by members of the new Cabinet, headed by the Liberal Ludovic Orban. The office of Chief of Staff remained vacant after General Nicolae Ciuca was appointed Minister of Defense in the new Government. The Council will also examine the proposals for budget adjustments targeting the institutions that have responsibilities in the field of defense.

COLECTIV – Final arguments are being held at the Bucharest Tribunal in the Colectiv case, by the lawyers of the club owners and of the owner of the company that provided the fireworks, as well as of the firefighters and technicians that have been tried in this case. On Monday, the families of the young people who died in the fire four years ago asked for material and moral damages of dozens of millions of Euros from the former mayor of Bucharests 4th district Cristian Popescu Piedone. Also, prosecutors with the Anticorruption Directorate asked for a 15-year prison sentence for the former mayor. Piedone and another three town-hall clerks have been tried for illegally releasing permits for the club that burned down in 2015, killing 64 people and wounding another 200. The trial started in 2016, but it was constantly postponed for two years, until a new judge was appointed, who sped up the hearings.

VISIT – Romanian president Klaus Iohannis is meeting today in Bucharest with the future president of the European Council, Charles Michel. According to a communiqué issued by the Presidential Administration, the two officials will discuss the EUs Strategic Agenda for 2019-2024, the 2021-2027 EU budget negotiations, Brexit, migration, foreign relations and fighting climate change. The visit of the former Belgian prime-minister is part of a tour in preparation for taking over the leadership of the European Council, on December 1st. He wants to learn more about the European leaders stand with regard to the main subjects on the EU agenda.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION – Gathered in plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Parliament is voting today the membership of the new European Commission, headed by the German Ursula von der Leyen, who has presented her team and programme. The Romanian Adina Valean will be the new Transport Commissioner. The purpose of todays meeting is to guarantee that the Commission has the necessary democratic legitimacy to act for the benefit of the European citizens. Since late September until mid this month, the parliamentary committees held hearings with each of the candidates, in order to assess their capacity. Last week, the leaders of the political groups and the EP president David Sassoli agreed that the examination process had been finalized and that parliament was ready to vote. The new EC should have taken office on November 1st, but three proposals for commissioner were rejected, namely those made by Romania, Hungary and France. If validated, the Commission will start working on December 1st.

MIGRANTS – 48 people from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and India were found by border police while attempting to illegally cross the Romanian border via Nadlac, in western Romania, hidden in a truck. According to the border police, six of them are minor, three women and 39 men, all asylum seekers in Romania. The police are now carrying out investigations to establish whether its a matter of migrant smuggling. (translated by M. Ignatescu)