THE WEEK IN REVIEW

7-11 October, 2024

Daniela Budu, 12.10.2024, 13:19

The Central Electoral Office announced, on Thursday, the final list of candidates for this year’s presidential elections.

There are 10 candidates supported by political formations and 4 independents in the race for the position of president of Romania. The CEO defined, by drawing lots, the order in which they will appear on the ballots in the first round. Thus, the first place will be Elena Lasconi – Save Romania Union, and the second place will be George Simion – Alliance for the Union of Romanians. The third position is occupied by the current prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, from the Social Democratic Party. Followed by Nicolae Ciucă – National Liberal Party, Kelemen Hunor – Hungarian Democratic Union from Romania and Mircea Geoană, independent candidate. The candidacy for the presidency of the leader of the party S.O.S. Romania, Diana Şoşoacă, was invalidated by the judges of the Constitutional Court. In justifying the decision, they claimed that, through her public speech, Diana Şoşoacă questions and disregards the obligation to respect the Constitution and urges the change of the democratic foundations of the state. She said that the decision of the CCR was abusive. The first round of the presidential elections is scheduled for November 24, and the second for December 8. The electoral campaign for the presidential elections officially starts on October 25.

Again about Schengen

The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen Area and land borders was, once again, on the agenda of the European Ministers of the Interior gathered, on Thursday, in Luxembourg. Austria is the only state still opposed, but the Austrian interior minister, Gerhard Karner, says that the discussion is on the right track. Present at the JAI council, the Romanian Minister of the Interior, Cătălin Predoiu, reaffirmed that Romania meets all the accession criteria. Here is Cătălin Predoiu:

“Romania is prepared from all points of view to join Schengen on the land borders as well. We met all the conditions, and the process of joining the air borders went very well. The figures show how much we have reduced illegal migration”.

The European Commissioner for Internal Affairs, Ylva Johansson, says that the accession of Romania and Bulgaria will be discussed again at the Council in December, and that, until then, negotiations will take place. The European official said: “Romania and Bulgaria fulfilled all the conditions and did even more than was necessary, and I am very optimistic and I hope that this decision will be taken as soon as possible, while I am in office”.

Important steps for the defense of Romania

Romania will purchase four high-power radars from the United States. The Sentinel system is capable of detecting a wide range of aerial objects and will significantly increase Romania’s ability to deter and defend against potential threats. State-of-the-art radars will complement the country’s air defense capabilities, especially in terms of early detection of unmanned aerial vehicles, threats that manifest themselves in the proximity of national borders, in the context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Minister of Defense, Angel Tilvar, said. In fact, he visited the Western Balkans the other day, at the beginning of the new rotation of an important part of the military detachments deployed in Pristina, in Kosovo, and in Sarajevo, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Taking over the command of the EUFOR mission represents a recognition of the professionalism and dedication of the Romanian military in this important mission, the minister said in Sarajevo, where he had a meeting with the command teams of the EU and NATO structures, and at a meeting with the Romanian military who are carrying out missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also in Pristina, Angel Tîlvăr assured that Romania is ready to honor its obligations for maintaining security in the Western Balkans. He met with the command team of the NATO peacekeeping operation KFOR, to which Romania has an important contribution, and with the Romanian soldiers on mission in this theater of operations. Also in the context of security in the region, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luminiţa Odobescu, participated, on Wednesday, at the Ukraine – South-Eastern Europe Summit in Dubrovnik, an event in which the participating states adopted a joint declaration recording the “collective commitment of multidimensional support for Ukraine’.

Decisions taken in Bucharest

The Romanian government adopted a decision allowing the import of eggs and poultry meat from Ukraine, only if they meet the standards of the European Union. The decision comes in the conditions where the Romanian poultry breeders signaled to the authorities that cheap poultry products from the neighboring country that do not meet EU standards have appeared on the domestic market. The executive also adopted two measures to support domestic agricultural producers affected by the drought: financial compensation and the suspension of the repayment of current and outstanding loans until August 2025. On the other hand, also this week, the Romanian Parliament tightened the penalties for human traffickers, based on increasing the incidence of this phenomenon. Thus, the Chamber of Deputies adopted, as a decision-making body, a draft law which provides that determining or facilitating the practice of prostitution or obtaining benefits from the practice of prostitution by one or more minors will be punished with imprisonment from 7 to 15 years. In addition, the state will grant free legal assistance and financial compensation to victims of abuse.

European cultural heritage summit in Bucharest

Between October 6 and 8, Bucharest hosted the European Cultural Heritage Summit, the most important event dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage in the European Union, as well as the “Europa Nostra 2024” awards ceremony. Specialists in the field discussed financing policies and projects for restoring and protecting heritage. On this occasion, 60 non-governmental and professional organizations signed, for the first time, a memorandum for the protection of cultural heritage in Romania. The document includes five urgent measures to improve the legal framework and capitalize on heritage.