February 16, 2020 UPDATE

A roundup of domestic and international news

Newsroom, 16.02.2020, 19:15

SECURITY CONFERENCE – The acting PM Ludovic Orban, who attended in Munich the 56th International Security Conference, on Sunday pleaded for an Europe open to enlargement and stated that Europe should protect its foreign borders, without having internal borders. Ludovic Orban took part in a debate titled “A Europe that Protects”. He denied the idea according to which Romania was not ready to join the Schengen area because of corruption and stated that Bucharest planned to put an end to the Verification and Cooperation Mechanism on Justice by curbing corruption and increasing the independence of the judiciary. The Romanian PM has also stated that earmarking 1% of the GDP of each member state for the Unions multi-annual budget is not enough, especially since there are now new fields that need to be funded.

TSI – The Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu hailed at the Security Conference in Munich the announcement made by the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the US would earmark one billion dollars for investments in energy projects, under the Three Seas Initiative. Bogdan Aurescu has told Radio Romania that these are energy interconnection projects that are in line with the objectives promoted by Romania as part of this initiative at the summit it organized in Bucharest, in 2018. The Three Seas Initiative is an informal political platform, launched in 2015. It includes the 12 EU countries located between the Adriatic, the Baltic and the Black Seas: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Its aim is to boost connectivity and facilitate real convergence and cooperation in fields such as energy, infrastructure and security.

UN – The Romanian Defense Minister Nicolae Ciuca has reaffirmed, during a meeting with the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Romanias commitment to strengthening security at international level, by means of an active participation in the missions and peace operations carried out under the aegis of the UN. According to a communiqué issued by the Romanian Defense Ministry, Jean-Pierre Lacroix reiterated the appreciation of the organizations leadership for Romanias participation, with a helicopter detachment, in the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali over October 2019 – October 2020. The meeting between the two officials was held on the sidelines of the Security Conference in Munich. Nicolae Ciuca also held a meeting with the President of the Atlantic Council, Frederick Kempe, during which he reiterated the importance to Romania of the Strategic Partnership with the US.

GOVERNMENT – The ministers proposed to form the Orban II Government will be heard on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday by the joint specialized committees of the Romanian Parliament. The investiture of a new Government will take place on February 24th. The Liberal PM designate Ludovic Orban has stated that he will present the objective of triggering early elections, in order to give the Romanian citizens the power to elect a new, fairer and more representative Parliament. On Tuesday, he held talks with some of the parliamentary parties, in a bid to get support for early elections. Such elections can be called only if two proposals for government are rejected within two months since the submittal to Parliament of the first list of ministers and the governing programme. Orban, whose cabinet has been recently dismissed under a no-confidence motion, sent the list on Monday. The opposition Social Democratic Party has challenged the nomination of a dismissed PM at the Constitutional Court, saying that its a violation of Parliaments will. The idea of early elections is mainly supported by the National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union.

PRO ROMANIA – The annual convention of the Pro Romania party, a left of the center party formed mainly by former members of the Social Democratic Party, was held on Sunday. The leader of the party, Victor Ponta, former head of the Social Democrats for yeas, made an appeal to his fellow party members to rely on themselves alone in the election battled that will follow. He launched the 2020-2024 Pro Romania Manifesto, which proposes several priority measures, such as changing the fiscal system adopting a differentiated, progressive taxation system for big salaries and pensions, an administrative reform by reducing the number of counties from 41 to 15 and the reduction of the number of parliamentarians. Ponta also stood for early parliamentary elections. The convention was also attended by members of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, interested in political alliances.

COVID-19 – Some 1700 people have been killed by the COVID-19 coronavirus and 70,000 cases of infection have been reported so far, mostly in continental China and Hubei province. In Bucharest, the Health Ministry has announced there is no case of coronavirus infection in Romania. One Romanian on board the Diamond Princess cruiser, in the Japanese territorial waters, was tested positive and transferred to a specialized Japanese hospital. His condition is good. The Japanese health minister has called on the population to avoid unnecessary meetings and crowded trains to contain the spread of the virus. He has warned that Japan enters a new phase of the infection, with more cases among people that have not travelled to China or have not got in contact with people from that country.

TENNIS – Two Romanian players, Sorana Cirstea and Ana Bogdan, have made it to the last round of qualification for the Premier tournament in Dubai, with some 2.6 million dollars in prize money, which starts on Monday. On Sunday, Cirstea defeated the German Julia Goerges, and Bogdan has won the match against the Chinese Shuai Zhang. Worlds no.2 Simona Halep goes straight into the second round, where she will play against the winner of the match between Alison Riske of the US and Ons Jabeur of Tunisia. Halep won the Dubai title in 2015. Also on Sunday, the Romanian tennis player Jaqueline Cristian won the ITF tournament in Trnava, Slovakia.