March 30, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 30.03.2023, 20:10

INTERVIEW ‘Moscow does not give up the
idea of taking over power in the Republic of Moldova and resorts to various
actions in an attempt to instate a Russia-friendly government in Chisinau’, the
country’s president Maia Sandu said in an interview to the Voice of Bessarabia.
According to her, it is only the heroism of the Ukrainian army, which is
keeping the frontline far from the Moldavian-Ukrainian border, but the country
is facing the elements of a hybrid war. Sandu has given assurances that the
people serving Russia’s interests are going to be identified but in order to
achieve that, the country needs to strengthen the capabilities of its
Intelligence and Security Service SIS.

SUPPORT In Bucharest on Thursday Spain reiterated its full support for
Romania’s accession to Europe’s border-free area Schengen, through the voice of
its Interior Minister, Fernando Grande Marlaska Gomez. Romania has worked
extraordinarily hard to achieve this goal and for a long period of time, the
Spanish official has pointed out. Minister Gomez held talks with his Romanian
counterpart, Lucian Bode, with bilateral cooperation against human and drug
trafficking high on the agenda. According to Bode, Romania is fully ready to
join the Schengen zone, and the decision last year was totally unfair. We
recall that the only country, which opposed Romania’s entry into Schengen was
Austria, on migration-related grounds.

BILL The
leaders of the ruling National Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party in
Romania, Nicolae Ciucă and Marcel Ciolacu, have announced that they
decided to support the proposal made by the Ministry of Justice regarding the
establishment of a threshold of 9,000 lei (about 1,800 euros) up to which abuse
of office is decriminalized. The announcements of the two come after the Senate
approved a draft law that provides for a value threshold for abuse and neglect
in the service in the amount of 250,000 lei. The change caused criticism and a
street protest in Bucharest. The opposition Save Romania Union has warned that
the value threshold of 50,000 euros for damage to the public budget to be
considered a criminal offense was also provided for by the well-known Ordinance
13 of 2017, which the government at the time abandoned after massive street
protests.

OECD The
Secretary of State for Romania’s Accession to the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, Luca Niculescu, was appointed to the Steering
Committee of the new OECD Regional Center in Istanbul. He welcomed the
initiative to establish the Center, aimed at encouraging inter-regional
cooperation, providing a platform for dialogue on public policies and
supporting the states in the region to face the main economic and social
challenges. According to a release by the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest, Luca
Niculescu expressed, at the same time, the availability of the Romanian
authorities to contribute with sectoral expertise to the activity of the OECD
Regional Center in Istanbul, recalling that Romania provides financial support
for the main regional programs of the organization.

(bill)